It’s been like this before
The cats basking on the sunny porch
The condensation on the Diet Coke can
Notebook and pen in my lap
Here, for a few minutes, where no one can find me
Every time it’s like learning to walk again
The clouds clear and I wonder what I did
With all that fair weather
I dream up routines like they are novel
Rather than a playbook that I follow
There’s a more optimistic reading of the myth—
Sisyphus pushes the rock uphill
The rock rolls back down
He gets to pushing again
—it’s tragedy and it’s hope
I hold the two inside of me
And forgive myself the cycles
They promise I’ll see sun again
With Love,
Natalie