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. 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 up because it's Friday morning.
Stratusfier killed it on Wednesday. I don't like to talk about attendance much (though thoughts and prayers and Facebook "likes" still don't fill seats), but I do want to share the first "walk-in" experience we've ever gotten at Stone Soup.
Two women came in just as we were waiting for Stratusfier to find his way to the gallery, at one point causing them to ask, "Is something happening here?" They had no idea what was scheduled but ended up staying for all but the last couple of poems from Stratusfier's feature. You can hear them a little in the beginning of this video.
One woman reacted very strongly to everyone's work on the open mic. It was until later that we found out that her mother had just died. She wouldn't leave before hugging Stratusfier and thanking him.
I want more moments like this.
The majority of the open mic all seemed to have the same theme. I did my best to honor both that and the poems of our feature. Thanks for reading.
This Constellation
Black woman at podium
speaks to-do list, which reads
as much more effective
articles of impeachment.
No raised fists, but a hand
goes up. I'm sorry, but can you
go back four-hundred years
to your time on the boat?
They only want the story
with the missed beginning
and standard MLK ending,
History from the machine.
She can't uproot from now
anymore than she can pluck
those ships from the water
and drop them in the Ukraine.
She sighs and speaks again,
her nebula self made toxic
by the only food she can afford
in a body no one will recognize.
Reminded that even the moon
has to be rooted to this earth,
she continues as gazers throw
all their unanswered wishes.
Special thanks to Bil Lewis, Toni Bee, Dexter Roberts, Skoot, James Van Looy and Stratusfier.
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