The Way It Is by Scott Thomas Outlar

Terrible things happen
to people
all over the world
seemingly all the time.
Africans starve.
Women are raped.
Hustlers lie, cheat and steal,
screwing over those who trusted them.
Family members die,
crushing the spirit
of the loved ones left behind.
Thugs shoot other thugs
in rival gangs
over shit like color and territory.
Fat Cat politicians
write laws
that benefit big corporations
by rigging the game
against Mom and Pop Stores.
Perverts molest little children,
scarring their young minds
for the rest of their lives.
Animals unfit to breed
have children
whom they beat with belts,
bruising their sanity
and creating a vicious cycle of violence
that may never end
until the gene pool runs dry.
One brother kills another brother,
sending their sister
into a suicidal despair
which ends with a slit wrist
and a bathtub full of blood.
But it’s not just
humans hurting humans,
because nature also has a say.
Tornadoes blow across the plains,
devastating entire communities,
destroying sentimental property,
and killing people in a sudden flash.
Lightning strikes in a dry forest,
causing a fire across hundreds of acres.
A volcano erupts
after ages of dormancy,
swallowing a civilization
beneath molten lava and ash.
An earthquake shifts
the seismic plates,
collapsing bridges and buildings
which crumble in a matter of moments.
A tsunami rides in
atop high tidal waves,
flooding nuclear power plants
which melt down.
Radioactive pollution
poisons the ocean,
mutating the sea life,
disrupting the food chain,
and causing all types
of unforeseen consequences
that last for thousands of years.
Oil wells crack
through careless construction,
coating the dolphins in black sludge.
Terrible, terrible, terrible things
happen all the time,
and the worst part of it all
is that this poem
won’t change a damned thing.

Scott Thomas Outlar survived both the fire and the flood – now he dances in celebration while waiting on the next round of chaos to commence. Otherwise, he keeps things fairly chill, spending the days flowing and fluxing with the tide of the Tao River, laughing at life’s existential problems, and writing prose-fusion poetry dedicated to the Phoenix Generation. His work has appeared recently in venues such as Section 8 Magazine, Dead Snakes, The Chaffey Review, Corner Club Press, Black Mirror Magazine, Dissident Voice, and The Kitchen Poet. Scott’s first attempt at a blog is 17Numa.wordpress.com.