Na/GloPoWriMo: write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend, as in  Claire Scott’s poem “Scheherazade at the Doctor’s Office.”

Here I sit with my laptop aglow,
In the corner of Starbucks, where baristas flow.
Beside me, Sisyphus, eyes on a roll—
His coffee, his rock, a venti-sized toll.

Each morning he orders, hope brewed with his drink,
“I’ll finish this project,” he claims with a wink.
But emails, like boulders, keep rolling downhill,
He pushes ‘reply all’, a test of his will.

“Another day, another latte,” he sighs,
Glancing at spreadsheets that climb to the skies.
His task list, a mountain, his calendar, chains,
As Monday reboots and his effort remains.

He laughs when I whisper, “Why not let it slide?”
“For if I did, where would my boulders reside?
Inbox to zero, a myth, don’t you see?
Like Tantalus’ fruit, just out of reach, teasingly.”

So we sit here, comrades in caffeinated fate,
Sisyphus with his rock, and I with my latte.
A duo in myth, in mocha we trust,
Rolling our burdens through Starbucks’ dust.