Stone Soup Croutons, 6-13-24: Punchline Out

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.

Despite not feeling well for a couple of weeks, Stone Soup has continued. But now I'm two Crouton poems behind. Hoping to be caught up by the end of today.This first one is from the open mic on June 13, a Thursday meet due to me having to attend a Town Hall gathering that Wednesday. Sorry I babbled so much about it in the beginning. There is literally nothing else interesting going on in my life right now.  It seemed exciting at the time. Thankfully, that didn't make it into the poem. This isn't perfect. I didn't touch on every piece). Still, if I wait for perfect opportunities to write, I'll never catch up. Thanks to Richard Spisak for showing up to the open mic last minute. If it wasn't for him, I might not have had an ending to this.

Thanks for reading. 

Punchline Out

 

Ladle out with a

broken sweet tooth

underworld laid out

for broken bodies. 

School/job reunions

in Zoom dark rooms.

Slavery might return,

but smiling face won't.

Feelings too sensitive

to mine for their AI.

Burn body down like

hero in wakeless quest. 

They want fossil bodies

working, not rose pressed

in bed. Joke's not funny

if you're laughing last.

Even when last minute, my goals are lofty...

Special thanks to Mark States, Mary Ann Honaker, Jan Rowe, Bil Lewis, Robert Fleming, Jackie Chou,  James Van Looy and Richard Spisak.