Sisyphus Sails to the Stars

In the darkest of nights and the eeriest of hours,

As the gods of Olympus slumber in their towers,

Sisyphus sits to sooth the sting in his shoulder,

But fails to hold down the weight of the boulder.

Down it rolls with the pebbles and the stones,

Along the slope above the sands and the bones,

Of ancestors that once stood to spectate and grin,

At Sisyphus' meaningless life bathed in chagrin.

It's momentum ceases at the gates of Tartarus;

A Netherworld in the reigns of Persephone and Hades,

Where the guards are asleep but the devil is awake,

For his sympathy lay with Sisyphus' fate.

Sorrowful at the sight of the fallen man,

"Human, all too human", muttered the Devil from his den,

"I must free him from the ropes of reality,

And show him the depth of lies and sensibility."

So he cast a magic spell on heaven and hell,

Froze its beings with the knocks of a knell,

And whispered into the startled Sisyphus' ears,

"I will wipe away your tears and fears."

And lo and behold! the Devil spread his wings,

The Moon upon a stick and fingers in the Sun,

With Sisyphus on his back and feet on springs,

Brushing the cobwebs off the sky, they sail to the stars.

Swimming into the void through rings of rocks,

Tasting honey from supernovas and sunspots,

Arpeggios, sopranos, spaghettis and spinning plates,

Concocting cocktails with inter-galactic soul mates

And as Sisyphus' body burns from the curse,
His mind injects this antidote like a nurse,
A cure for a being in a world so perverse,
To let the eyes see what is inverse and reverse.

Fantasies never end for the Devil is a friend,
One who dwells beyond the realms of reason.
So when miseries are one too many to ascend,
Call upon his service for he is the imagination.

For all that is knowledge may be out of reach,
And all that is meaning may feel too weak.
So like Sisyphus, let us forget where we are,
And delude ourselves and sail to the stars.

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