Stone Soup Croutons, 8-7-17, Take Off

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions butchered 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. You can read the other ones I've done since 2015 here. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, this poem doesn't go up because it's ready, it goes on because it's Tuesday morning.

Another Monday, another all-open mic. We had a lot of good voices tonight. Special thanks to Julia Carlson reading the work of recently departed poet Denis Johnson and Andrew J. Padilla, who read a poem by Ross Gay on the death of Eric Garner. My poem won't do the night justice, but that's why you should come and see for yourself.


Take Off

Swear yourself to sleep,
counting expletives until

you dream about a time
when love wasn't another smack

to the back of your head,
every kiss not a presidential debate,

a river more than something
that could sweep you away,

a healer more than someone
shoving fingers down your throat,

when Cupid's targets weren't hiding
arrest records in their own quivers,

when your wealth wasn't given
to the first girl on the street,

swept to the sidewalk pick-up
along with your first apartment,

your faux grief taking space
on corners where true tragedy rests

has nowhere else it can go,
reminds whiners they can still breathe.

Yes, someone signed up as President James Madison.
Another reason to be in the audience.

Bonus Picture! Bil Lewis as President James Madison!

Bily Madison?

Special thanks to Andrew J. Padilla, Chris Fitzgerald, Deb Priestly, Melissa Castillo, Bil Lewis (aka President James Madison, Julia Carlson, Martha Boss, Julia Flint, Gawaine Ross, Nancy Messom, Lee Varon and James Van Looy.