SCOTT THOMAS OUTLAR

SCOTT THOMAS OUTLAR

 

Yeah, You’re Always Right

But How Well Do You Aim?

I’ll trade you a puddle of rain

for a blanket of whitewash

and hand you my last two cents

for a broken clock

I’ll sing you a song in praise of the sun

if you whisper back an echo

and reason with the ghosts in your mind

if you’ll chase mine away

I’ll run to the edge of our love

where you promised a fissure

and fracture the parts of our whole

to ensure you’re a prophet

I’ll dance with the bones of star dust

before the expansion point is triggered

and wait near the calm of black holes

until our next shot explodes

 

Ham & Havarti On Sourdough

This is a poem about animals on the farm

of which I am one

a poem about their actions

swine and lion factions

a fascination with the trough

This is a poem about the moo cow

golden milk and rawhide leather

a poem about the slaughtering fields

twelve score of eggs divide in fractions

a scrap of cake for the holy geese

This is a poem about cheese in the cellar

of rats and wine where weasels roam

a poem about foxes lost in the henhouse

pecking order, clutched pearls, and crown

a blanket from the shearing season

This is a poem about snakes in the cud

the smell of skunk and rabbit blood

a poem about the spit-shined blade

hyenas squeal and curse their fate

a gavel in the eyes of owl

 

Fickle Sails

For all the hours passed

this way or that

Some wasted (admittedly)

some seized

others sacrificed

to deal

with deeper

wounds

The best advice about forgiveness I ever received

was

it’s all water under the bridge

but we are living in a time

of great floods, baby

and my store

is all but spent

SCOTT THOMAS OUTLAR

SCOTT THOMAS OUTLAR lives and writes in the suburbs outside of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Selections of his poetry have been translated into Afrikaans, Albanian, Bengali, Dutch, French, Italian, Kurdish, Persian, and Serbian. His sixth book, Of Sand and Sugar, was released in 2019 through Cyberwit Press. He hosts a podcast, Songs of Selah, that airs weekly on 17Numa Radio and features interviews with contemporary poets, novelists, artists, musicians, and health enthusiasts. More about the show and Outlar's work can be found at