Myth Re-Making

in my world
Orpheus begins in the underworld
and then must ascend
to find his love

and instead of that desire
consuming him to lock eyes with her
he instead is told
he cannot ever look away

but he breaks his gaze
and she is lost from him forever

the simulacrum inverted:


the wind is stale
trees hang docile
blanketed flowers
extend languidly

the sun the same
lips glazed shine
dimly in reflections

the tragedy unfolds
from its conclusion --

nearby
unwatched by all
Sisyphus sits atop a hill
and rolls stones lazily
uninterested where they'll crash
at the bottom

absurdity lost its vigor
and no-one noticed

virtue is reinvented
an implicit implication
redundantly constructed
from synthetic glass
is reproduced to exigency

now we search for the real
with the one thing left to us:

hammers and fists

virtue in destruction
starting (calmly)
with the self