Friday, October 15, 2021

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 10-13-21: Day Off


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.

It was a good open mic on Wednesday. Among the many highlights was John Sturm fighting back in the war on Halloween. That and with me sharing a photo for Ed Gault, you got to see how busy my desktop is. 
 
It was the perfect remedy for my first day back at work after five days off. Giving this poem a title based on my time away doing a little of what I wanted to do. Thanks for reading.


Day Off

Somersaulting after summer
is dangerous. Fall does not
lighten you like a leaf.
 
Kick back like a Pietà figure,
get mauled by a Catholic bear
who ordains you dirty lamb.

Never perceived as savior, tune
preset to a basket drifting too fast
down the river, uncatchable. 

Outcome is too inevitable 
to be chaos. That's what you tell
the ghosts you picnic with.
 
Between empty bites, you watch 
bluejay versus squirrel, wonder 
who you should root for.
 
When did your significance
become so intertwined with 
your scalding cauldron of charm?

Wind blows through rocks, 
able to get in anywhere, part of
exclusive club you can't yet join.



Special thanks to Ed Gault, Nancy Dodson, Chris Fitzgerald, John Sturm, Mary Jennings, Jason Wright, Ethan Mackler, Patricia Carragon, and James Van Looy.

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