Billionaires and Dumb Birds

People today are too stupid to breathe

Modern persons in this country
Are like that old wive’s tale
About turkeys drowning in the rain
Because they are too stupid to
Stop drinking the rain

It’s a dumb idea, born of dumb people
Who listen to dumb things
They heard from other dumb people

Turkeys, as any decent hunter will tell you,
Are notoriously difficult to hunt

You can get reasonably close to them
If you’re unarmed;
Not too close, but close enough to
Admire them

But pull out a rifle or a handgun
And watch them scatter

Go looking for them after that,
Good luck

Set up a hunting blind to still-hunt them,
You’ll be waiting for a while,
A long while

Stalk them,
You’ll be walking a long way,
For a long time,
Trying not to snap twigs
And rustle leaves

So, how is it that a supposedly
“Dumb” bird
Knows what a shotgun is?
Or a .308 rifle, .30-06, 35 caliber?

Why does a bird you eat at Thanksgiving
Show no alarm if you suddenly
Whip out a stick and wave it around,
But when you pull out a
Smith and Wesson .38,
It takes off

You telling me that’s dumb?

Now, modern Americans…
I can easily picture them
Drowning in the rain

Now, I’m not saying that
Smart Americans don’t have plenty of
Good reasons for wanting to die,
For wanting to tune out

After all, the smart ones are
Surrounded
By idiots who are ready, willing, and able
To swamp the boat
For everyone

Those who worship the opinions
Of people who make
Billions of dollars a year, but
Have no compassion or empathy

I mean, if you also
Make billions of dollars per year,

And you regard the people
Who helped you get there
As pests to be managed,
Then sure, you should probably listen,
When some other vapid cunt
Who makes billions per year
Speaks

But if you make less than
A hundred grand per year,
And most people do,
Regardless of what Google tells you,

And if you genuinely believe
In things like reciprocity and loyalty,
Then maybe don’t listen
To sociopaths?

I don’t know,
Call me crazy

Maybe the guy who made billions
Off the backs of average people,
And regularly threatens
To fire them, should they miss a few days,
Because they were sick,
Or because they were late a few times,
Or because they tried to unionize,

Maybe that guy isn’t your friend?

Mr. and Mrs. Blue Collar America?

Seems to me,
That to believe that a billionaire
Is capable of thinking about
What’s good for anyone
Other than themselves,

Well, you would have to be
Just about as stupid
As a bird that tries to drink rain
Until it drowns

Except, such birds don’t exist

If they did, they’d have gone extinct
A long time ago

That kind of behavior is not what
Evolution regards as being
“Selected for”

But poor people
Believing in “Trickle Down Economics,”

Now, that is a real thing

Because a movie star told them;
Not just a movie star,
But also a TV star;
Not just a movie and TV star,
But also “the prehzidehnt
Uv tha Yoonyted Staytes”

That was forty years ago

Things have gotten much worse since then

But these things take time

Should start “trickling down”
Any day now

Just like the rain down a
Turkey’s neck

Americans, most of them,
Are in fact, too stupid to breathe

They detest bad news and
Pesky facts

Shoot the messenger,
Not the problem, itself

Trust the guy who commits
To the lies

Look down your nose at the ones who
Try to give you health insurance
And education

The rains are coming

Sky’s cloudy and dark,
Winds picking up

A lot of people are soon going to be found
Lying out in the open,
In the woods, on the streets,
In their backyards, on football fields,
In parks and playgrounds and
Parking lots

Dead
Drowned

Reasonable people will have tried
To warn them

That’s not rain “trickling down”
In gushes and torrents

That’s the streaming urine
Of people who will make
More money, today, alone

Than you will in your lifetime

Much more

Billionaires are, as the British say,
“Taking the piss”
On average Americans

And everyday Americans
Are eating it up

Or rather,
Drinking it down

And since they can’t sustain themselves
On a steady stream of
Billionaire piss

They’ll drown

Too stupid to stop drinking

Too stupid to breathe

Turns out,
That behavior is
“Selected against”


©2026 Kevin Trent Boswell 

Now Available

A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms, the 12th publication by Kevin Trent Boswell

A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms is a
general collection of poems. The material veers wildly in several directions at once. You’ll find stream-of-consciousness pieces, romantic poems, works of heartbreak, dark scalpel slices that reside in the penumbra of horror, and avant-garde bits of absurdism. So, there’s no need to trouble yourself attempting to understand the methodology here—there is none.


216 pages

©️2025 Kevin Trent Boswell

A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms by Kevin Trent Boswell
A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms
by Kevin Trent Boswell
A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms by Kevin Trent Boswell
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A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms 
by Kevin Trent Boswell
A Collage of Chimeras and Phantasms
by Kevin Trent Boswell

slurpishly

radial beams
smile sears through
the morass of tedious
normalcy

similar to a sizzling steak
on the grill in the backyard

good feelings spray out
like the water from a
rotating yard sprinkler

hand me a straw
and let me sip
this sugary cocktail
of swirling girlish charm

easy to drink

drunk on the polarity
of what she is
and what I am not


©2025 Kevin Trent Boswell 

like a house of

like a game of
Jenga, or Operation

like the careful restructuring
of a house of cards

how to
delicately slide
the desired shape

out of its current position
and into the one
I choose?

it’s absolutely essential
to have a steady hand,
to avoid upsetting the harmony

must not startle,
or cause alarm

she is nestled ⠀
comfortably
into her little nook, ⠀
her home

if it is indeed possible that
she might be moved by me…

then I must proceed
ever so gently, deftly,
with the greatest
of charm and tact

otherwise, the whole structure
could come tumbling

down

one must be debonair,
unhurried, poised, skilled,
perhaps even a bit
devil-may-care

for a handler of cards,
the appeal of the card
is what strength she brings to his hand

does she make for a
weak pair of twos?

or does she complete his straight flush?

does she make him look and feel
like the winner of the game?

but the card herself,
she is far more impressed
by the manner in which
an adroit dealer is able to
adeptly and confidently ⠀
handle her

expertly positioning her
without her necessarily
noticing

she wants to feel
safely controlled,
lovingly held,
as a crowning
symbol of
fulfillment
and fruition

but if the Queen of Hearts
is yielding…

if she offers some assistance,
some small help
in wiggling her out
of that lonely position
between the Three of Clubs
and the Four of Spades,
then there’s hope

and I will keep that card
always

up under my sleeve,
right next to my skin


©2025 Kevin Trent Boswell 

do not

no flailing
hopelessly
against the
locked door

no hurling of self
at the feet of the
unappreciative,
useless,
would-be
royal

no pleading
with a fickle child,
changing-with-the-wind,
always insistent,
and never gracious

there shall only be
the championing
of the devout
worshipper

the one who basks
in the joy of being
in the presence

who abundantly,
persistently,
and clearly
sings the praises

this,

this is the only head
that shall be
crowned
and kissed
and covered
by praise and protection,
by the gift of honor,
and the giving
and receiving
of service

service
rendered
in endless
and selfless
bliss


©2025 Kevin Trent Boswell