Stone Soup Croutons, 7-19-23: Before Breakfast

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions selected 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 collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

 

Wasn't expecting to be hosting this week's open mic, but host it I did. Some weird video issus. Jon Wesick's first piece got cut a little in the final product but thankfully can still be enjoyed. It also inspired this week's title. 

It looks like Jason Wright will be next week's guest host with a feature to be announced.

A shortish one this week. Thanks for reading.

Before Breakfast

Could have become

one of those who count

dew drops under some

bridge, asking each one

to be a friend or a Dad,

wall staring stone-faced.

Best years almost killed

you. So  much burnt,

never want to play a 

fiddle again. Almost gone,

forgotten, story sterilized 

like a 70's cereal mascot.

Heartstrings play bass, 

remind you you're alive,

not buried under roses

or waiting in line for a door

that won't slide open at 

three in the morning. Now,

you want someone for

something besides warmth. 

Music heard from open 

window no longer goes

down like caltrops in

your drinking glass. Eat

some semi-healthy flakes,

let a breeze in, don't think

of churches with awnings

that keep the rain off. 

Special thanks to Nancy Dodson, Jan Rowe, Bil Lewis, Patricia Carragon, Jackie Chou, Jon Wesick, Jon Wesick, Ethan Mackler and James Van Looy.