Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Stone Soup Croutons, 10-16-17, Welcome to Your New Home



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.

Margie Shaheed gave us a wonderful night of poetry. I'm indebted to her for a wonderful feature. Quite a surprise to me then that the poem came out as dark as it did. I "blame" Dexter Roberts for such a compelling poem about immigration to start off the night. At any rate, here it is.


Welcome to Your New Home

To join this elite cult,
you'll have to be able
to laugh in the face
of killing your best friend.

The discomfort comes
when you realize you
are the only one laughing,
so you never stop.

Set your soundtrack
to a Guns n/ Roses album
with an orchestra background
that would even put off Axl Rose.

It's every school spirit rally
from third grade to senior year
when you were suspended
for drinking in the bleachers.

Whether or not you know it,
blood was your school color.
Our new headmaster thinks
it's okay to be aroused by this.

He prefers we-won country croons
compared to go to war metal.
Everyone thinks they can sing
because they already do what they want.

It's best your family isn't here,
even if they took part in the ritual
with enough of a body count
it must be tradition.

Behind your blinking eyes
is where you keep you guilt.
Tell you self you're only
telling it like it is.

That way it doesn't come out
as your confession
as you burn the very stars
to maintain your life's support.



Special thanks to Dexter Roberts, Toni Bee, Deta Galloway, Bil Lewis, Martha Boss, Erik Nelson, Mignon Ariel King, Michael Igoe, Margie Shaheed, Stars and James Van Looy. 


1 comment:

Mignon Ariel King said...

Nicely done, Chad!