Stone Soup Croutons, 11-29-18, December Assessment

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.

Last night, the open mic resumed again. It was good to get back into the routine of writing these poems. Look forward to doing another one with an open mic and feature next week. For now, here's a poem.  Another poem for the holidays, I tell you! Thanks for reading.


December Assessment

Steaming water defies loneliness,
gives you a valid reason
why no one approaches you.
No one discerns droplets from tears,
both falling from exhaust.

Sure you're comfortable.
As at home as a turkey
on the beach, as composed as
an outfit assembled by whim
from bargain baskets bottoms.

Your usual confessional
surely bugged for the holidays.
Enough is revealed in convenience
store bills. Amazing what you share
when you're hungry after nine.

One more awkward attempt
at a joke, and you'll be out of work,
halfway out your halfway home.
You leave your heart in a suitcase
with wheels, ready to go on a whim.

James Van Looy always goes last, no matter who tries to hide behind him.

Special thanks to  Lo Galluccio, Nancy Messom, Chris Fitzgerald, Laura Lambert, Martha Boss and James Van Looy.