Isotope

by June Daowen Lei
 
Sisyphus Variation

 
                 Even stranger,
that the edge, once sharp
                 is no longer:
 
and that things,
                 all of them,
take to rounding out.
 
This is a trick
                 of physics, the
myth of Sisyphus,
 
it is just,
                 logistically,
                 seismologically,
 
ridiculous. The stone
would become smooth
from all that rolling.
 
                 Smooth
from the salt grease
of his hands, the friction
 
of rolling in
                 and pulling back
as an ocean, or remorse.
 
Perhaps the stone is dense.
perhaps it is granite
                 studded with mica,
 
                 or iron, ore,
a composite mineral
passing time as we each do.
 
It is here,
                 and it has a half life,
so it is too barrelling towards an elsewhere.
 
Even stranger,
                 that a tactic of time
reassembles texture.
 
So someday, near eternity,
                 Sisyphus,
once pushing stone,
 
will no longer. Someday
                 near eternity,
he will find himself pushing
 
melon, then
                 pebble, then
                                  pearl.