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 recently partnered with Oddball Magazine. Stone Soup Poetry meets 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

On Monday August 25, we end the month with another focus on Flatline Poetry, this week, we present Kaleigh O’Keefe and will continue until October, culminating with the full Flatline Poetry group performance on October 27.

 

Greenbriar Nursing Home 
 
“Thank you”, I said. 
“They’re lovely”, I said. 
Three massive baskets of white and yellow flowers,  
cut and stuck into foam. 
 
I couldn’t just throw them away ­­  
they were beautiful, and they were gifts ­­ 
so my mother and I stopped at  
the Greenbriar Nursing Home.  
 
She assured me that this wasn’t weird at all, 
that when she worked in the same nursing home,  
“people would drop off flowers all the time!” 
 
We walked in, awkwardly, 
and were met with an accusatory glare from 
the secretary. 
 
It was almost ten o’clock a night. 
 
“They’re from the memorial service of a friend”, we said. 
“We wanted to pay it forward”, we said. 
“We thought you would enjoy them”, we said. 
 
She thanked us as she pushed them to the corner of her desk, but  
I could tell from her eyes that she knew we really meant: 
 
“Please.  Take these. 
We can’t stand to watch them die.”