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.