Stone Soup

Sometimes I wonder about that story
of stone soup,  
where people are duped into  
sharing their food with an old lady
who says she can make a pot of soup from  
nothing.
 
We are all that old lady in a way,
pressing strangers and siblings
and friends in our circle
to give up parts of themselves
 
integrating them into the gaps
we perceive but have no idea
what to do with. How much
definition is necessary, or more like
how much of all the MEs out there
are just filched pieces
of someone else?