Chasing Tail by Scott Thomas Outlar

Chasing Tail

Pop your collar

I have met the Mad Hatter

Have you?

Cut my lips on broken theories

lost my tongue

learned to shut up

and listen

Ears waxed with tomorrow’s ashes

vital organs exposed in serenade

Laughing at the blood and licking

our way back to center plasma

Seven layers of smoke coat your lungs

I have witnessed all ten eruptions

Have you?

Enough poison fills those vials

to drown our final prayer in slumber

Morphine gods and silicone dreamers

plastic kisses and crystal groans

Scratches of sand sharpen focus

forced to shut up

and listen

dehydrated in the desert

The taste of halogen and furies

mute, burnt, spent, extinguished

Beneath the flames decrees fall silent

judgment has no value in a void

Stealth white rabbit safe with secrets

never will reveal what isn’t sought

Burrowed in the cold forgotten earth

chewing on the cud of all our questions

Bio:

Scott Thomas Outlar lives and writes in the suburbs outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys spending time with the trees alone in silent thought, and also loves attending festivals where the song of humanity can be heard in full voice. Of Sand and Sugar, his sixth collection of poetry, is forthcoming in 2019 through Cyberwit. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Outlar guest-edited the 2019 Western Voices Edition of Setu Mag, and was a recipient of the 2017 Setu Mag Award for Excellence in the field of literature. Selections of his poetry have been translated into Afrikaans, Albanian, Dutch, French, Italian, Persian, and Serbian. He has been a weekly contributor for the Dissident Voice newsletter since 2014. He hosts a podcast, Songs of Selah, which broadcasts on 17Numa Radio. Links to Outlar's published poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, reviews, live events, and books can be found at 17Numa.com