Kevin Trent Boswell

Don’t Read This Poem

You don’t want to read this poem
Because it doesn’t conform to your view
Hell, it barely matches my own
So, it might not appeal to you

To enjoy this, you’d have to be able
To challenge your beliefs and behaviors
It doesn’t confirm preconceptions
And it’s utterly devoid of saviors

In this poem, I’m not the champion
It holds up no heroes to idolize
Neither does it have evil villains
There’s no money, sex, gossip, or lies

It asks only that we be better people
That’s all that it does… that’s it
And this is why it stings my pride
And why most will say that it’s shit

You have been warned, if you read this
You may regret some choices you’ve made
You might question some of your actions
Or feel bad about the part that you played

So, don’t even read the first line
That’s how you find yourself in a pickle
Next thing you know, you’re wondering
If you’ve been cruel, selfish, or fickle

Before we start asking tough questions
Ones that show just how we’ve been slack
Before we lose our ability to play Victim
Let’s not read this… and never look back

quiet in the jungle

where have all the lions gone?
they used to roam these parts freely
out on the plains,
sometimes in the streets

but look all around,
and you won’t find any
in the trees
or under the sheets

the lions are hiding,
but they are not afraid,
even though the gazelle
swears otherwise

zebra asks the lion
if his confidence decayed
but the lion says,
“look deep in my eyes”

look closely, you’ll notice
there’s no appetite
for there’s no game here
worth the effort to devour

so, I no longer hunt
because the taste isn’t right
the meat is all bitter
and sour

free to do nothing

the freedom, complete;
each choosing to hate
with no chain
no consequence

with malice, replete,
but calling it fate
yet, each day, explain
a lack of competence

troll the open sea
with barbed steel, shiny
weighted down
with broken spanners

let no one just be
present them a heinie
and gift them a frown
through a lack of manners

catty, defensive,
all fault is father’s
none pass the test
all blindly deny it

and so, we are pensive
not one of us bothers,
thinking it best
to choose peace and quiet

nouveau design

light it up
let’s go ahead and do this
there’s nothing here
but the smell of gasoline

shatter the cup
of the empty kiss
there is only fear
and they’re all this mean

empty the coffers
and raid the till
don’t tend the fire
chase butterflies

laugh at the scoffers
go in for the kill
plot and conspire
for the everyone cries

marbles and magnets

daddy magnet fire bomb
chaser, a Molotov cocktail
excellent man angler fish
knows how to ride the rail

a suspicious looking package
electronically delivered
a string of neural signals
warning one, it shivered

doesn’t matter it’s nonsensical
for sense, it does not matter
the sound of marbles rolling around
a set of teeth that chatter

a spike of dopamine in the brain
nothing else exists at all
adrenaline rush of pure chaos
and total lack of protocol

grown ass sovereign

tiny tyrant, vindictive and petty
useful in the most useless of ways
omniscient, omnipotent, powerless, dumb
toy compass points toward hateful malaise

closed off from everyone, open to all of it
help is the hunger to acquire, to accrue
never learned to do the dance of anything
all those skills are for someone else to do

cocked, sawed-off, double-barrel rage
all of us failed to know what was hidden
couldn’t guess the number of jelly beans
a boobytrapped jar labeled “forbidden”

you should’ve known, even though i don’t
get out of my head, give me some space
i’m so lonely, why don’t you love me?
but i always take time to put you in place

trapped in the mirror, the empty reflection
ripples don’t break the Narcissus spell
no wrinkles in the alarm clock’s sleep
a ladder of bones to a personal hell

an army of me, but none of those copies
are this good, although all are the same
and i know how you love my hurdles when
you say how much you hate this game

one pill or the other; it’s hardly the issue
this one is poison, no name on the jar
many will partake, thinking it medicine
but all will collapse, and none will get far