Good Ship Sisyphus Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

We set sail early one morning
in the springtime with cargo hold
filled with millions of tons of stuff
destined for the grubby merchants
in New York and Boston

Capn Levvy was our taskmaster
strutting the hurricane deck
with puffed up pride-

Always a man with his eye
peeled for the main chance
of scoring millions of dollars
off his employers and the men
who labored mightily on deck
and in the engine room below

We sailed from dawn till dusk
and around the clock-
short rations in the mess
as our Capn hoarded
our victuals to be sold
on the black markets
up and down the length
of the Americas

We never landed in a port
that allowed free exchange-
we were bound to sail endlessly
on the steamer Sisyphus