Repository 21-22 (3)

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

Sisyphus

Time
with its incurable habit
tricks on
leaving us stranded
on shoals of absent minded kindness
benevolent neglect
memory of ourselves
as new growth
tender and green
challenge of the future.

Future that was
our binary code
when fusion
produced fission
and
we watched ourselves

split unrecognizable.
Still habit
is incurable
and still
we gather

over mess of
scrambled eggs
coffee
history behind us
celebrating ennui
sometimes.

I watched your mind
expand to match
your gut. You saw
my cover shrivel
company to illusion.

But there is comfort
last night you said
you like me. We've
come a long way
I'm grateful
although I question
your taste.

c. 1977 Rita Rosenfeld
published by Repository Press, winter-spring 1977