Scott McDowell

Scott McDowell is a poet based in Morristown, NJ. He works as the marketing and communications manager for Folk Alliance International. Scott was a finalist for the 2023 Stone of Madness Press poetry contest and won the Benjamin T. Marshall Prize for Poetry. @hellomcdowell on Instagram.

Cultural Ecology (POEM)

Time is human. Super roots and ashtrays

silence the food court boys. Your secrets on top.

History about to go off. I still have not told you any of this, cousin.

People slowing down, dumping each other in the galleria

sometimes. A tender boy in a rugby shirt with spaceship eyes

reaches out his hand. I hold it like a crystal ball but he wants cash.

At last I’m free. Natural history tangled up in lime,

the pitter patter of eras repeating. Recipe for a boiled egg.

Sweet interior: saxophone planters, holy voices, jars

of nuts. You can’t live very long without feedback.

Varsity Blues (POEM)

You’re wearing the perfect weekend sweater,

fuchsia swing song, shaggy dog. When

the weather turns, your hair goes a darkish amber color,

not rust exactly. It’s a whole movie on the big screen.

I collect strands and bunches from the drain before

I Drano that shit.

It's almost time to sail:

you finally broke your eggs, stitched the shells

back together, carefully taking a fragile object

to the edge.