Scott Thomas Outlar lives and writes in the suburbs outside of Atlanta, Georgia. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He guest-edited the Hope Anthology of Poetry from CultureCult Press as well as the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Western Voices editions of Setu Mag. Selections of his poetry have been translated into Afrikaans, Albanian, Bengali, Dutch, French, Italian, Kurdish, Malayalam, Persian, Serbian, and Spanish. His sixth book, Of Sand and Sugar, was released in 2019. His podcast, Songs of Selah, airs weekly on 17Numa Radio and features interviews with poets, artists, musicians, and health advocates. More about Outlar's work can be found at 17Numa.com. 

Holy Trinity

 

 

Please don’t feel sorry

for all the sad follies

 

of nature

of God

and of our

 

broken attempts at love

Of Godhead and Gravestones

 

 

Rip the words from my tongue

before they find form

 

seven x seven x light

the specks of our eyes

 

even the swine

bathe now in pearls

 

even the cursed

catch their own fish

 

I swim in the gasp of your waves

last lungs on earth

 

river x ocean x fire

everything is always ending

 

everything is always burning

 

everything is always birthing

anon

Casting Cards

 

 

I wouldn’t dare

call myself a poet

or an artist/or a warrior

or a fighter/or a servant/or a stoic

or a fool

 

I’m just a hermit and a vagabond

going within so I can wander

 

but these pines work well as bones

sturdy long enough to carry the hour

 

and all this dirt will eventually receive

the same returns of what once was offered

 

profit every whisper of groaning breath

pilfer specks of sand from six scratched eyes

protect the black of my lungs/

                                      tongue with glazed amber

 

Harvest the autumn

red leaves sign caution

blood in the engine

ghosts crawling through dry veins

 

Spells cast the season

cold snap of reason

heavy pulse turn plasma

gears shifting beneath the plates

Give & Take

 

 

It’s interesting

how the black void

of absolute

nothingness and despair

that haunted your life

as a scared child

 

turned out to be

the same exact

space of consciousness

found in meditation

that saved your soul

as a 30-year-old man

Narrow

 

 

Life offers but two options

on its menu

 

You can lament

over what has been lost

in the past

for all your days

& remain

empty

(half full at best)

& forever starving

 

or you can forge your way

toward the future

& forage for a feast

that will fatten you

with peace & happiness

 

It’s all ice cream & oranges

 

& the fine line between