Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked from Stone Soup Poetry'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.
I also have a book out now collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.
Wednesday was the first open mic of the month. Hurricane Ida was raging, which no doubt affected some people's connectivity (sorry, Chris Fitzgerald). But we had old and new names alike. It was fun. The poem below reflects the poetry manifesto-heavy open mic with a touch of recent news here and there, including the story of Caleb Wallace. It's more silly than morbid, but it's the poem that I had to write.
Poet's Petty Revenge
What's the difference
between a wake and
between a wake and
a poetry reading?
Poets get to choose
when they, the center
Living poets wander
New England woods
in search of perfect stone.
They'll never find it
again, leave details
to their faith healers.
Their bodies are cars
their souls are forced to
get out and push
during summer storms,
eyes cataracted by
relentless raindrops.
Poets expect nothing,
to be saved by no one,
to destroy themselves,
suicide manifesto
to tune of shopping list
with their name at top,
forcing readers to say
name over and over,
best bloodless revenge.
Children forced to
memorize strangers'
standard stanza s
between Baby's First
Monopoly and tales
of unvaccinated father
out-suicide bombing
the Taliban. They still
hate poetry but those lines!
A radio ad jingle, a song
your parents played
behind a locked door
that made you sick.
Children pray to forget
the words, like all bribes
they took that never
got them anywhere.
Mr. Pompeil, save them
from all this poetry
with an ad campaign
that made nobody immortal,
easy talking points,
only rungs of Jacob's ladder
they'll ever need.
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| We'll get you next time, Chris! |
Special thanks to David Miller, Coleen Houlihan, Jon Wesick, John Sturm, Nancy Dodson, Patricia Carragon, Carol Weston, Jan Rowe, Henry Hintermeister, C.C. Arshagra and James Van Looy..
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