Art: A Big Dream by Tiko El Outa

 

 

A Quick Look

 

Crowbar the kinder
gardener

Look for the car
key left night long in the cold
dead bolt

Always the last place you’d expect

*

Overlooked
I have always liked

your looks
landing somewhere eagle
edge, precipice

Press the poultice
of your eyes

to my infirmity

*

Dear tantrum dear night
terror, we have a hostage situation

*

Deprived
I have always paraded

my insecurities
on Instagram

Depressed, Facebook

 

 

About the author:

Cameron Morse lives with his wife Lili and two children in Independence, Missouri. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland Review and South Dakota Review. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Far Other (Woodley Press, 2020). He holds and MFA from the University of Kansas City—Missouri and serves as Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and Poetry editor at Harbor Editions. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.

In the artist’s words:

Tiko El Outa is a Georgian/German poet and painter based in New York City. She visualizes her poems through her paintings. Each of her work is a story of harmony between two seemingly-contradictory concepts – imperfection in perfection, perfection in imperfection, love in pain, and pain in love. She published a poetry book in Germany titled ‘Wenn die Leidenschaft ruft’ in 2016.