To Push the Rock

*Spoiler Warning: I wrote this poem for a videogame I am still currently making called "IRL" (by Gozar Productions LLC). If you are planning on playing this videogame and care about spoilers, please do not read this poem until the game is released. Thank you :)

What is the purpose

Of pushing the rock?

To wake, to work, to sleep

And every day repeat

And repeat again for a lifetime

Until you have no life to live?

Where is the joy in pushing the rock?

To toil, to labor, only to feed, to survive.

But what is the purpose of surviving?

Where is the joy found in a journey that doesn’t move?

A dead calm in the middle of the sea.

Can you get out of the water?

Can you reach land?

You row and row, but land never comes closer.

Will you remain when the land appears?

Or will you not be there to see it?

What is the land? Is it better than the sea?

Where can it be found?

Is land all that you expect?

Will it be different than the sea?

Or is it just another version of the sea

In a different environment?

Do those on land long for the sea,

As you long for the land?

Or does land even exist?

In that case, will you ever reach shore?

Will you continue to push the rock

With nothing at the top to reward you

And nothing on the other side

Except nothingness?

Is the toil worth it?

But what if you weren’t pushing alone?

What if we pushed together?

And rowed together?

And journeyed together?

What if we changed together?

And became better?

Then we would be moving.

Then the toil would be rewarding

And we wouldn’t need land.

But what if I said no?

Because I must push the rock

And continue to push the rock

Alone?

As though there is a reward at the top?

Or what if I said no

Because I already have a partner

To push the rock with?

Who I carry and who carries me

And I don’t want the extra weight.

What would you do then?

If land is in sight, but out of reach,

Because of my choices?

What would you do?

Is it worth it to be?

. . .

And so I wait.

Because no one will push the rock with me.

And I will continue to push the rock alone

Until there is no more me to push it with.