Mirror Mask Of Sisyphus

Mirror Mask Of Sisyphus
© Surazeus
2025 03 22

Hieroglyphs inscribed on lightning-cracked stones 
depict the Raven God with thirteen eyes 
leading refugees of home-blasting war 
through narrow roadless mountain vale of hope 
to find dream garden of the Promised Land 
hidden behind enormous walls of wealth. 

To walk backward in future of the mind 
where television screens in trunks of trees 
present whole history of the human race, 
I wear the mirror mask of Sisyphus 
to stand before statue of Pegasus 
and pose for celebrity photographs. 

While marching in the band of howling clowns 
in oval stadium full of cheering crowds, 
we gather fragments of shattered world views 
to build abstract sculptures of twisted bars 
which represent the leading characters 
performing roles in our disastrous show. 

Organic forms of plants and animals 
emerge from pungent passion of the soil 
to play the subtle personality 
sensitive to ever-shifting terrain 
in social drama fraught with fake respect 
that changes lives with contrived honesty. 

Traveling through space of transforming time 
to work in garden of flowers and herbs, 
I consider how the stranger might feel 
on reversing tide of conceptual hope 
where I shall sing plain prophecies of doom 
while taking stock of truth designed by fate. 

Wolves surround the wounded king in the snow 
who prays to the rising moon with fierce hope 
to extract lithium from old rugged hills 
where every honest poet in the world 
wanders among cactus of blind skeletons 
who dance on graves of thieving oligarchs. 

If we remember her electric laugh 
that rings cathedral bells of self-control, 
we might soon comprehend why colors cry 
to robot angels of Elysium 
who sell stolen feathers of Pegasus 
to curious tourists from land of the brave. 

Though I escape blank page of the dream book 
I will play better self my heart designs 
to steal the thorny crown of sacrifice 
from head of the god who eats lightning strikes 
so he can become human before he dies 
and his atoms formulate flowing streams.