Stone Soup Croutons, 5-16-16, Bark at the Howl

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked up from poems overheard from Stone Soup's open mic readers and features. I figure out a title later. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, the poem doesn't go up because it's good; it goes up because it's Tuesday morning evening. Sorry, guys. I've just been swamped lately.

Lee Litif and Mark Hänser were in the house last night. This is the first Croutons poem I've had to do with Lee being a feature. It's hard to get concrete ideas of Lee Litif into a poem without referencing a lot of bands from the sixties and seventies. I didn't have an easier time when I played back a recording I took of one of his poems. Hopefully, I caught the feel of the night.


Bark at The Howl

In the ruins of a past crime,
ex-lovers convene
in this makeshift amphitheater.

Program are passed out
comprised of small talk
between Ginsberg and America
he never thought worth sharing,

fenced into a manifesto
reading like a crossroad
between Sesame Street
and the trash cans
on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Obnoxious women campaign
for the mantle of gossipers
in the box seats made of boxes.

They will finally be hurled
when the latest untold apocalypse
takes center sage as scheduled
as impolite interjection.

Tonight's air onstage holds less
a Shakespearean mad
or even a poet's mad,
more of the magazine Mad.

Hotdog donut innuendo with revolvers
for the performer's own feet.

George Washington falling from
his own chopped cherry tree.

The slaves are freed realizing
they never were slaves.
For martyrs, they make good clowns.

Alone a viola plays a volley of vicelessness
once the carnival finishes announcing
to a now empty tent.

The few, the brave.

 

Lee Litif's lyrics for the opening song.

Special thanks to Lee Varon, Surat Lozowick, Chris Robbins, Johnny Flaherty, Kai Gezahegn, Martha Boss, David Agee, Deta Galloway, Chris Fitzgerald, Michael Ponzak, Emily Paine, Lee Litif, Mark Hänser and Navah The Buddaphliii. 
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