Stone Soup Croutons, 11-1-23: What the Dead and Dying Do

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.

Jackie Oldham was a wonderful Stone Soup feature this past Wednesday. A treat to listen to this night from start to finish. 

Kind of another ghost's tale this week. It was fun splicing this together. I hope you enjoy it to.

 

I think it's my shortest piece in a while. I'll keep this brief and end by asking you to please support Jackie for this week's reading by donating to her PayPal @baltimoreblackwoman. And check out her website.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

What the Dead and Dying Do

While the wealthy cosplay

as homeless in metaverse,

 

workers celebrate being able

to afford second pair of pants,

 

politicians project best visages

of mercy after bombing end

 

and America' supremacists fail

to feign surprise at backdrop fire,

old woman has youth-driven quest

while carrying nostalgic ghosts

to building in city that serves 

as one of jazz's several tombstones,

and she sits on barely there steps,

to wait for encore history denied.

 

Special thanks to Nancy Dodson, Bil Lewis, Jan Rowe, Carol Weston, Ethan Mackler, James Van Looy, Bryan Franco, Robert Fleming and special feature Jackie Oldham.