Stone Soup Croutons, 7/13/15, Seasonal Pescription

It's week five of Stone Soup Croutons. Another week, another poem made of lines and impressions captured from poems overheard from Stone Soup's open mic readers and features.

This week was  bit different. Instead of a long open mic and one feature, we had a smaller open mic, a micro feature by way of Yuri Hospodar, and the Stone Soup Slam. This meant that there was very little time to spare, so unlike most weeks, I had no time to read the finished product at the end of the night. As a plus, I did manage to get almost everyone on the open mic, the micro-feature, and the first round of all the slam competitors. The poem has a disjointed beginning, but a common thread or two throughout the rest of it.



Stone Soup Croutons, 7/13/15

Where have all the gay poets gone?

 We last saw them in this closet
but someone cleaned them out this summer.

But with every elevation
of good news
there's a latitude adjustment.

After the euphoria
of finding Sasquatch
there comes the swipe of its claws.

And the doctor
finding their way
to blame you for leaving
eyes wide open to be poked.

Together we
tick off minutes of twilight
to our own beat
ticking down to sock hop
or hip hop

and we wonder
regardless of rhythm
if we're tapping in sync
to the feet of our father's

or are we systematically
shuffling our feet
brushing away smatterings
of shattered dust.

Even jazz hands have
miles to go
before it achieves
the peace it purports.

This pill pop
is not your poppa's.
We call our doctors.
We call them assholes.

If you can feel it
they can cure it.

You don't have to write
that poem to not-your-girlfriend.
They can stop that.

You have a family to forget
a makeshift family
who hid with you at your
childhood town's lake.

You miss the heirlooms
of your enemies
that you broke.

Remember that nothing
follows you from high school
except your diagnosis.

Perhaps another country
could erase even that
The new life you family hoped for
by way of retracing.

Most of the names were on a separate list for the slam.

Special thanks to Yuri Hospodar, Erik Nelson, Ryk McIntyre, Martha Boss, Toni Bee, Tu Anh Phan, Rachel Copans, Angelica Maria, Tim Hall, Big Poppa Ben, D. Ruff, JR Mahung, Jason Wright,  Hannah Brown, Jeannie and Realyfe