Gargoyle 6
cover drawing by Zenon Slawinski
publication date 6/14/1977

SOUP

Linda Pastan

"A rich man’s soup–and all from a few stones."
–Marcia Brown, Stone Soup


If your heart feels
like a stone
make stone soup out of it.
Borrow the parsley
from a younger woman’s garden.
Dig up a bunch of rigid carrots.
Your own icebox is full
of the homelier vegetables.
Now cry into the pot.
When he comes home
serve him a steaming bowlful.
Then watch him as he bites
into the stone.