poets – Page 8 – Kevin Trent Boswell

A Name and Little Else

A catalyst, dipped in fire, a belch
Memories serve as a match
Begging forgiveness, promising again;
The disease is certain to catch

On further reflection, please do not
Pretty please, say that you can’t
The idea of slightest, greatest, or middle
Causes a rage and a rant

It’s simply too much, and too little, by far
And none of it’s worth all the troub…
I can’t even begin, much less finish,
With an every-time-wrong-way rub

Let someone else have it; I do mean all
If it’s like that, the price is too steep
The smart is too short, the stink too wide,
And the stupid is just too deep

It thinks too little, too much, of itself
A fickle, passing wind, a decree
It tilts on stilts, and then, suddenly wilts
At nothing and all that you see

Throttle the speed, and down the shifter,
Or the shafter, or the hole, or whatever
Turn it away, and all that it offers,
Which is little and even less clever

For days are short hours; hours, too long
Months wasted on the beginning
But cutting it short and calling it quits,
One is afforded more winning

Then, years all stretch comfortably out,
All the tired heads nod to agree
The minutes are sweeter; decades, too
And everything is as it should be

The poetry of Kevin Trent Boswell — **Oops, I dropped the picture.**

locus

weighted dice spilling from broken jaws

tainted allegories and
flawless renderings of the invisible

dry beans pour out of sacks
onto tables of diamond and ivory

an abacus of emeralds,
strung on strands of horsehair

a tiny pewter coin sits
atop a scale of solid silver
resting on a column of solid gold

pristine smudges of chocolate
on acrylic peanut butter tapestries

buckets full of comets kicked over
and showers of sparks
falling on the floor

it’s enough to fill
the silos of the universe
top to bottom

but is it enough?

each individual grain of sand
grates against another;
all are dutifully counted

the hourglass is emptied
of all its inexorable empires

excuses are forged from breath,
and hammered into the sacred elixir
of nothingness

there is no motion
in this river’s torrent

the asphalt streets stole it all,
sold it to capricious eels
who swim in desperate candlelight

germinating helixes
bristling thorn vines

funneling promising poisons
into the infant mouths
of ageless behemoths
who rule small places

culmination is the beginning
of the termination of endings
and the siphoning off
of all the intermittent middle bits,
the ones that,
as an afterthought,
we tacked onto the ends
in carefully coordinated haste

the endeavor,
doomed from the outset

thank goodness
we never embarked upon the journey
and that we saw it through
all the way to the end

we can scarcely contain ourselves
from raving about
what raucous ecstatic bliss
it was, from the pistol start
to the razored end

steal the serpent’s fangs

replace its venom
with politesse
and useless smalltalk

watch giddily
as it pathetically
gnaws and gums
unproductively at its prey

we dare not speak
of our elusive mysteries,
not to the droll, sour, uninitiated brood,
lest they discover our secret formula
of beginning in the middle
and ending at the front part
of the second third half
of each hind quarter,
but only on Thursdays,
except on leap years of an august May

the excitement would surely
be too much for their frail constitutions,
and over dead, they would drop down,
into new incarnations
of ceaseless wonder

and when, if so,
would any of it
ever cease?

take care,
that none of this ever occurs,
except for those precious few times
that it unavoidably does not

dial back
the wilting clock
and try not to
try again

The music and poetry of Kevin Trent Boswell.jpg

stain

In loving memory of Jevon Ward

he was speaking vodka,
a language that I understood
all-too-well

as I sat on the edge of his bed,
I handed him the joint
that I had just finished
carefully rolling

he lit it, and taking a small toke,
became suddenly
and uncharacteristically
serious

“You do know that I’m not life, right?”

it must have been obvious
that I had no clue
how to answer that,
so he continued,

“When I was just a little boy,
“your grandpa (and mine) told me,
“he said,

‘Son, you’ll pull time before you hit twenty.’

“At nineteen, I did six months.”

before he could say another word,
drunk people spilled into the room
and the party took over

it was as if the writer
of this dark comedy of errors
had carefully placed
the interruption into the script
for dramatic effect

years later,
I stood in the yard
with my father
one morning

we burned a mattress
in the yard

a mattress with
a peculiar red stain
on the top end of it,
right about where a man
would lay his head down
to sleep

smoke climbed high,
snaking its way through
the bare tree branches,
coating the limbs,
blackening the sun,
giving twisted new meaning
to the wind

with each searing crackle,
each hot little iron
that launched out of the flames,
the notion was solidified
that you would never be
with us again

the red stain
is forever removed,
taken off and away
from the bad blend of cotton
and synthetic fiber

its ugly lack of aesthetic,
permanently removed
from the eye

we have, instead,
embroidered you
into our hearts,
in gold-letter
on satin

a little redirection,
a simple trick
of the firelight
and the mind

a touch of
pre-approved manipulation,
vocabulary and memory,
now twisted
to suit ourselves
with semblances
of sanity

and you, all dressed up,
looking dapper
in a new suit

something to
bring you over
the threshold
in style

we have gathered
many flowers

you were one of them

now, on this rainy Saturday,
we gather more,
but none of them are as rare
or as interesting as you

still, we do so wish
that you were not so

still

now, we are all
so much more careful
with our words

we never had to
monitor our tongues before

we always counted on you
to say something
deliciously profane,
hysterical, sublime

you said things far more terrible
than we could ever manage
(or dare) to bring forth
from our fearful mouths

you said it all for us,
you, being our favorite devil,
you spared no words,
knowing full well that your time
was short

now, everything is
serious and sullen

ash settles on us,
stealing the still-warm
seat of smiles

we do our best
to preserve the integrity
of your memory

with all our words,
so clumsily polite and wrong

yours were so horribly accurate

your list of faults could fill volumes

all of these,
now consumed by fire
and forgetfulness

we will not miss them

we are, in fact, glad
to be free of these;
free from the weight
of your awful acuity

your spiteful condemnation
of this earth was always felt
hot upon our necks

even your parting words of
“Fuck this world!”
were a vicious pronouncement
of a pox on all our houses

that seething sentiment,
ever-present,
laced into the mix
of the cocktail that was you;
virtually indistinguishable
from the indiscriminate joy
of your cosmic jester voice
pouring out over our
wanting brains

we will not miss the
chaos of your actions,
or your allegiance to
an autocratic indifference

we only miss

everything else

but beneath all of the
intolerable heavy,

knowing of nothing else to do…

we dutifully
lift our eyes
to the coming days
where you
are not

Quiet

“Quiet” by Trent Boswell

Quiet

From the upcoming album of electronic music

Crossing the Rubicon

Lyrics:

ruthless angel,
bent on blood
ever-sought
endorphin flood

feast on heartbeat
of tender young
wily, sticky,
praise-dripping tongue

break accidental
steppingstone
precision, falling,
clockwork drone

caring for nothing
but small throne
calculations crunch
numbers, bone

no rancor, mess
rumor, hush
listen now,
quiet, shush

make a devil
but never tell
eat your silence,
control it well

bring your secrets
to curled, black lip
her favorite sound,
your blood, go drip

drink of the night
drink more than your fill
drink in the victory
drink to the kill

trophies invisible
trophies of flesh
all temples, divisible
empires mesh

quiet now, children,
and listen…
a story,
a clue

of course, you
didn’t hear it,
you were never
meant to

Lyrics in print in my book Chaos Comes Apart, available on Amazon:

More material at:

https://KevinTrentBoswell.com

https://www.patreon.com/magus72

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/trent-boswell/4117063

Heavy

I see the length of rope that hangs you
I know how you are trapped from within
There’s nothing for you that I can do
Don’t expect you’ll come down again

The invisible shackle on your leg
I feel its ponderous weight, as well
The lock and key don’t belong to me
And neither does your hell

There is no gag to mute your voice
You chose to choose, to beg, to ask
When asked about your final choice
The words could not escape the mask

The floor is yours; of me, no trace
Stepping away, discharging a sigh
One heavy heart, one double-face
For someone other than I

Not Long for This World by Kevin Trent Boswell — — Most recent book release, available on Amazon —

Magus72 on Patreon - the music, poetry, and madness of Kevin Trent Boswell — Magus72 on Patreon – the music, poetry, and madness of Kevin Trent Boswell

a poem unworthy of a name

emptiness strode in
and took the place of fullness

redirection and symbolism
flailed like untrained children,
beating each other with
soft, half-balled-up fists;
fists that were incapable
of accurate aim

there was little violence, many tears

still, it was less comical
and more sad

the end result of
all of this
is nothing more than
emptiness

I am not there,
nor are you,
nor is anything,
nor is anyone else

it is all full
of nothingness
now

and anyone who
can look at this mess
and say that there’s anything
good about it

that’s someone who needs
to have all their teeth
knocked out of their mouth

now
it is all full
of nothingness