David Galef

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Hit or Myth

Fair Play

Trying to save his liver
Doesn’t mean knocking off booze,
Just protecting his entrails
With nothing left to lose.
Will Hercules ever save him?
Turnabout’s not illegal.
Finally feeling peckish,
Prometheus bites the eagle.

Priceless

King Midas had a golden touch.
It didn’t seem to help him much

Sisyphus on Holiday

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
—Camus

Sisyphus is having a ball,
Pushing it uphill,
chasing it down.
He might as well be on vacation
When he really goes to town.
He grunts in part for effect
Till the mountainsides proclaim,
In the sweat-pitted whorls of his ears,
“You’ve gotten good at this game!”
They tell him, “You rock, Sisyphus!”
They assure him, “You’re on a roll!”
But tell us, what is this?
Sisyphus taking a stroll.

David Galef has published over eleventy-ten poems in The Yale ReviewShenandoahWitnessMeasure, etc., and was once the featured poet in Light. His two poetry books are Flaws and Kanji Poems, his two poem chapbooks Lists and Apocalypses. He has no intention of quitting his day job as professor of English and creative writing program director at Montclair State U.