Stone Soup Servings is a regular series for Oddball Magazine that features upcoming performers at Stone Soup Poetry, the long-running spoken word venue in the Boston area that has partnered with Oddball Magazine. For years, Stone Soup Poetry has met from 8-10 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery at 106 Prospect Street with an open mike sign-up at 7:30 p.m. This changes this Monday as the Out of The Blue has opened in it’s new location at 541 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square Cambridge, Massachusetts!

For our first feature, we have longtime Stone Soup friend and Jack Powers advocate Gordon Marshall, who was a recent Oddball feature. Read his new poem below and be part of the new excitement at 541 Massachusetts Avenue this Monday.

 

Love Child

Something about the poem
It does something
I don’t know what
Something about the way
Of language

It’s a play and a game
It’s a serious business
Something to take home
With you, a cup of coffee
From a cafe

Something about the poem
Does something to you,
You, the writer,
Watching the train go by
The whistle loud and clear

It’s a matter of how close
You get to the poem,
How close you get
To another person
That’s how close you get

It’s a difficult process,
Writing the poem,
You just can’t stand the pain
Why not give it up?
It’s something you need
The tweezers that pull out
The splinter in your breast

Somehow you feel better
But you don’t want to do it again
It’s the love child you didn’t expect
And wouldn’t have again
If you had the chance
But you love him
You’re glad you have him