The Artist By Nikki Giovanni, from "Bicycles"

And so it comes
To this
The sun beating
Down

The people indifferently passing

And we ... out
Of breath
In a pool of salty
Sweat
Laughing Happy
In each other’s
Trust

That once again
We gentled the stone
All the way down
And will now

Push it back up

But we will wait
Until the sun sets
We will wait
Until the stores
Close

We will wait
While they put their garbage bags
In the streets

We will wait
Until the dogs and rats
Sniff their choices

We will wait
Until the street cleaners
Push their brooms
And the women offer their wares

We will hope
The men are kind

We are Sisyphus

We write the poems
We paint the portraits
We sculpt the statues
We quilt the blankets
We set the tables
We make the beds
We wipe the tears
We rock the anger
We hold on to tomorrow

We push the rock up
And we gently bring it down

We were promised
Only a gift of light

You keep me
From being
Lonely

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