Sisyphus
October 14, 2020 Art by Nathan Rich
New Multitudes Jack Zimmerman There’s a deli on the corner, and it’s hot. We wait outside. Overlapping. I’m the old woman who owns her space at the black-wire table in the shade. I’m the hard-hat workers that wait for the sodas on the curb. I’m the young woman. Her mother cuts in line. That’s me too. I’m the bald man, pants hiked, demanding Val from the back. And I’m Val, aproned around the waist, bandana’d at the top and mad. I’m the fat mom with three kids. I’m not the kids. Can’t quite see me. Can’t quite see— And there I am, new, There there there I he is new the man with a tie, undoes his top button chest hair holding ice water styrofoam. Flag the tie loose and melt. And there there there I am am together we we all together him together me.
Sisyphus The October 2020 Awakening Literary Editors: Harrison Beardsley, Philip Hiblovic, Corey Lyles Taggart Arens, Alex Wentz Luke Duffy, Alexander Preusser, Christopher St. John, Austin Wald Art Editors: Philip Hiblovic, Brendan McLaughlin, Nathan Rich, Owen Rittenhouse, Jack Janson Layout Editors: Carter Fortman, Carter Spence Nathan Rich, George Henken, Luke Duffy Moderators: Frank Kovarik, Rich Moran