Scott Thomas Outlar‘s Poems

Peaches ‘n Cream

 

I have a song for the rain

and more respect to the wind

that carries your sorrows to bay

 

Meet me where the senate rules

where granules and specks

of little white lies

are magnified

to mount defense

 

and sometimes the mirror

of criminal projection

shines sharpest

during reciprocation

 

Meet me where the house divides

where grapevines measure proportion

of tragic last cries

and ruins

aren’t always well-remembered

 

Empty Calories

 

Sugar in the wounds

Sugar on the scabs

Sugar in the eyes

Sugar through the blood

 

Sugar in the chocolate

Sugar on the tongue

Sugar in the bread

Sugar from the lips

 

but the bones need minerals

else they become brittle

 

and the potion must be bitter

if it’s brewed to truly heal

 

Sugar in the sermons

Sugar on the mountain

Sugar in the oranges

Sugar through the teeth

 

spit into the dirt

where all good seeds must grow

 

planted in the soil

with candy and herbs alike

 

Of Tombs and Choirs

 

This body is a graveyard

worms swarm the dirt, kiss dead eyes

 

A million cells perish by the second

gold star dust doesn’t dare to shine

 

Dress the bones up nice in a suit

and send them out to flash a smile

 

Cadavers dance best when broken

despite ankles twisting beneath the weight

 

Starving bellies bloat to rupture

toss a few spare scraps to the gallows

 

This flesh is a prison sentence

spelled out in the wake of dreams

 

Oceans unexplored churn silent

swallow, spit, rinse, repeat high tide

 

Feast on scales but leave the salmon

upstream, new moon, old blood sacrifice

 

Tie a noose around the collar

all vertebrae hang in a dog eat dog

 

This world is a mass burial hymn

notes that scorch teeth, tongue, and womb

 

Give & Take

 

It’s interesting

how the black void

of absolute

nothingness and despair

that traumatized you

with terror as a child

 

turned out to be

the same exact

space of consciousness

found in meditation

that saved your soul

as a thirty-year-old

 

Prison Break

 

In cages

there grows

either

malignant tumors or

true freedom

 

From silence

comes forth

ancient monsters or

enlightened wonders

 

and the tongue is black

but filled with painful beauty

 

and the voice is harsh

but riddled with new horizons.

 

Scott Thomas Outlar is originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He now lives and writes in Frederick, Maryland. His work has been nominated multiple times for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He guest-edited the Hope Anthology of Poetry from CultureCult Press as well as the 2019-2023 Western Voices editions of Setu Mag. He is the author of seven books, including Songs of a Dissident (2015), Abstract Visions of Light (2018), Of Sand and Sugar (2019), and Evermore (2021 – written with co-author Mihaela Melnic). Selections of his poetry have been translated and published in 14 languages. He has been a weekly contributor at Dissident Voice for the past eight and a half years. More about Outlar’s work can be found at 17Numa.com.

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