Stone Soup Croutons, 6-20-16, Lessons by Way of Orchestra

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 (and sometimes the rest of the poem) later. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, the poem doesn't go up because it's good; it goes up because it's Tuesday morning.

Toni Bee gave us a verbal symphony yesterday, which gave us the title of our poem today. Why that title? Why not? None of this makes sense! I'm not even 100% sure if everyone on the list below actually "made it" into the poem. But I figure what the hell. You were brave enough to go out to hear poetry on a hot summer night. You're all winners.

If it wasn't the end of an exhausting school year, I would care about things like "detail" and "sense" a little more. Right now I'm too tired to stop myself from having fun like a true New England native.

Thanks to Toni and her spoken word band for everything.


Lessons by Way of Orchestra

Children of the fifties are grounding themselves
from the flesh of their favorite recurring lamb
until their children come back to release them
by saying they were right.

They should have learned to never work
for salvation from children and their animals
to be forgiven for their racial slurs.

Dogs are disgusted by their dirty laundry.
Luckily their language is too baffling
to translate into fragments and hashtags.

Kansas fields are just a future hatch
for another hidden missle silo.

In the afterlife, Sisyphus throws rocks at  you.
As every dog owner will tell you,
sometimes a bitch is also love.

A stomach can rupture lit with righteous alliteration
even if only filled with good humor.

You can still not know who your are
even if you can check off every box in an application.

Our fathers' shades do not need to give us wintry halt
unless we need protection from cruel summer.

Kansas is a crop circle ready to happen, but it can still be home.

Special Thanks to John Scott, Rachael Eisenberg, Dexter Roberts, Gladys, Martha Boss, LUCCI, Chris Fitzgerald, Lee Varon, Jason Wright Surat Lozowick, Neiel Israel, Jonathan J. Joseph, Gawaine Ross, Reece Cotton, DiDi Delgado, Toni Bee and James Van Looy.