dead, bloated cow

and that sickly, ugly war
raged through the streets,
unhinged and unhappy,
all too costly and unaware
of the damage it deals

it blisters the skin and boils the blood,
ripping down foundations,
blasting apart buildings,
making vehicles cease to exist,
filling the air with a foul stench
of fear and anger

its reward? only carnage
and arrogant blustering,
nothing of validity or consequence;
nothing positive or loving or logical

only the bellowing roar of endless warring

a hotdog cart burning in the road,
and fat, half-dead cow by the river,
making horrible noises of pain,
as it hopelessly calls out for attention

and to think, how everything
could have been peaceful, happy, and quiet

but some will always find it absolutely
unacceptable to have anything other than
their way


©2025 Kevin Trent Boswell 

Good Luck, Liberal

Liberals need to get a grip on the facts
Democracy has come right off the tracks
Get it through your Progressive head
This doesn’t end without bloodshed

The Epstein list, it just doesn’t matter
Scandals don’t cause tyrants to scatter
The “schism” should cause you no elation
But you’re not ready for that conversation

Maybe you’ll get lucky; I don’t know
Like the British, saying, “You guys can go”
King George set us free just to be nice
And we didn’t even have to ask twice

Or how Southern States just up and quit,
No need for the Union to do actual shit
Confederacy said, “Hey, let’s not fight”
“We’re sorry. We want to make it right”

When that guy with the funny mustache
Apologized for being grumpy and rash
He regretted invading Poland and France,
Gave it right back when he had a chance

But good luck with the nonviolent protest
If boycotts and letters are your very best
You should persuade them any day now
Although, in truth, I don’t know how

Those authoritarian fashy-types,
Don’t yield power over grumbles or gripes
To beat fascism without ending up dead
Get over yourself, and embrace bloodshed


©2025 Kevin Trent Boswell 

Easy Answers

There’s a video going around about how right-wing media is successful because they offer people easy answers. 

I have no problem with the video or what the people in it are saying. I think they’re correct. 

You know what else is an easy answer? The easiest answer of all is the one that we so desperately want and need to hear:

“Peaceful Resistance is the way!”

Peaceful Resistance Is Surrender

It’s easy because it involves very little effort. It’s simple things like boycotting specific companies, calling (corrupt) politicians, attending marches, or organizing a national strike that will be a drop in the profit bucket for oligarchs who already have more money than God. 

Peaceful resistance is easy because it requires no changes in our typical, day-to-day thinking of “Be kind.” And the “Be kind” way is how I strive to live, too. 

But when someone is literally kidnapping your neighbors and sending innocent people to the most horrible prison on earth (that we know of), is saying, “We need to remain peaceful!” really still the kindest thing to do?

Really?

Does that help any of the families who have had their loved ones abducted? If your friends or family members had been stolen, would you want to hear about more peaceful protests?

Or would you want to see someone gearing up like goddamn Delta Force, armed to the teeth, ready to go get them back at any cost?

Unless you genuinely placed your real-life loved ones into that hypothetical scenario, and then really thought it through, you won’t answer the question honestly.

Change of Venue

But that would require letting go of some of our preconceived notions about how the world works. It would require considering the possibility that perhaps our democracy has already fallen, and now, the only hope is to steal it back and restore it.

But these are not easy answers.

I assert that it is foolish to believe that a regime like the Republican Party is willing to allow us to have free and fair elections in the future.

Seriously?!

Do you really think that the same people who are arresting judges and mayors are somehow above rigging elections?

You think the same sociopaths who laugh about putting innocent people into the worst prison on the planet are simply too democratic to even consider tampering with your right to vote?

You think the psycho who sits in the Oval Office, mocking heroes like Zelenskyy, and chuckling at sick jokes with a tyrant like Nayib Bukele, that turd, is going to respect your voting rights?

The one who repeated the Big Lie, over and over, a la Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler… that one?

The one that incited the January 6th riot, and was refusing to leave the White House. That turd?

It Can’t Happen Here

People will say, “That’s ridiculous! Our democracy cannot fail!” 

But consider what was recently said by one of the Yale professors who just permanently left the US because of her fears about the rise of fascism here.

She said (paraphrasing) that:

Everyone is saying, ‘Let’s just step back and take a breath. We have guardrails to protect us against these things.’

But we’re like people on the Titanic, insisting that our ship cannot possibly sink. But there’s no such thing as an unsinkable ship.

What Actually Works

Physical force is not only sometimes necessary, it’s FREQUENTLY necessary.

It’s the whole reason we have an Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and National Guard, plus a police force, FBI, CIA, DOD, CSS, DHS, SWAT, NSA, and all the other agencies.


If a person is interested in Successful Resistance, they will look over this diagram and decide where they fit into it. 

They will save the image, begin studying something that we, everyday civilized civilians normally pay no attention to, the Art of War. 

Because the enemy has already captured the capital, and they have no intention of stopping until they have ground you and I into the dirt.

“But It Doesn’t Make Sense!”

You tell yourself, “But this cannot be! They can’t possibly be that cruel, selfish, and willing to cheat!”

And you believe this precisely because you are a decent person.

But you will always be at the mercy of terrible people until you acknowledge the existence of terrible people.

You must do more than simply admit that they exist. You must admit to yourself that they are everywhere, even right here in the good old USA.

You must accept the harsh reality that they are willing to harm, threaten, imprison, and even kill you in order to get what they want.

Know Thy Enemy

And unless you’re willing to take the gloves off and get your hands dirty, unless you’re willing to spill blood in the defense of your family, community, your nation, your freedoms, and common decency, they WILL prevail.

They are already in the big chair in Washington.

You have to change your entire mindset. If you would defeat evil, then you must learn how evil operates.

And not every example of “fight fire with fire” is an oxymoron, nonsense argument.

Physical force is frequently the ONLY THING that will stop a violent person from harming others.

And physical force is sometimes DEADLY.

Again… But Why?!

Why would they do this? 

Because they are hateful and greedy. 

And THAT, my friend, is the ONLY easy answer that you’ll get about any of this mess. 

Making memes has become a real problem for me. If I survive this fascist regime, I will need to seek help.

soldier

stiff upper lip,
thick-skinned baller,
rolling with the punches,
and all that other
factitious bullshit

the bliss of liar’s cup
is but a cup of blissful lies

dreams of
copious other things,
receding like melting wax,
into the past
fading away,
leaving behind the sweet perfume
of burning plastic and ammonia

hairlines

fissures in consciousness,
blessings of intermittent sleep

control panel fuses
all crisp, and awry of order

all correspondence
resides now in dwellings
other than original
intentions

settle for
smaller and smaller
portions,
pieces

easter egg fractals
of memory

“didn’t there used to be
something that went right here?
didn’t something or someone
occupy this space?”

now, quiet dogs
bed down in the
cold, wet trenches

stale toast and seagull meat
empty ammo box for one
in the center of the house

unseen earthworms,
misunderstood by
all the happy eagles
and fish

whole continents fall,
and yet, not an inch
of ground is gained

roll off the edge of the map,
and onto the floor,
to lie in the dust,
with all the broken grease pencils,
and first draft plans of attack,
torn angrily into ribbons,
and bursting into flame

siphon off
the last sour dregs
of wedding wine

no guest sits at the table
to taste it

it is useful now,
only as vinegar
for cleaning the stains
left behind
by revelers
who dwell in the
realm of the living

wines and cakes
are wasted
on the forgotten dead

celebration farce,
ersatz holy words
of hollow power

the gut pinches up
and knots
at the thought
of each new
sunrise


©2023 Kevin Trent Boswell

Most

Most stories don’t have happy endings
The brutal truth is that most do not
For each hero who makes it home,
In unknown ditches, a hundred more rot

For every song about some brave champion,
There are endless graves without any bones
For there was no body which they could bury
Only lost names engraved on stones

We must admit if we’re honest about it,
Eventually, Death claims them all
Those who we celebrate after a battle
And those who on the battlefield fall

Those who seem to be safe back at home
Are also short candles in a night so late
None escape the long-armed grasp,
Of those pitiless stranglers, time and fate


©2022 Kevin Trent Boswell


New Music Album on June 8th

Something in the Air – an album of 10 original songs from Trent Boswell, available on June 8th, 2022 at most major music streaming services like Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, etc.

Published Works

The poetry and music of Kevin Trent Boswell
The poetry and music of Kevin Trent Boswell

Support This Work on Patreon 

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

But I Am Not There

I see the blood that spills in the streets
Can practically smell the gunpowder air
Tasting the ashes, bitter on my tongue
I hear the explosions, but I am not there

I cannot claim to fathom their fear
Or say that I know the depth of their dread
I’ve not had to bear the loss of loved ones
Nor have I the need to step over the dead

I live far away from the noise of the horror
I close my eyes with no fear of sleeping
No aid raid sirens awaken me rudely
I read in peace, tea silently steeping

Pictures and articles pour in daily
Videos making me a bit more aware
I know it’s happening; I know that it’s real
But the sadness I feel does not compare

I hear children crying, and nothing stops it
I see the confusion and pain in their eyes
I smell the smoke and festering wounds
But the foulest odor is the stench of lies

A well-heeled madman’s misinformation
Distorted guile drips from his tongue
Slanderous justifications for the slaughter
Of unknown thousands, old and young

But my food is hot; my belly is full
I don’t hide underground or need to run
There are no tanks parked out on my lawn
My hands are empty; they hold no gun

I don’t have a gas mask close at all times
My roads are clear, my home is intact
The power to stop the storm is not mine
It rages on, and the sky is blacked

I cannot order the attack to halt
And to send in support is not my decision
I don’t determine the fate of anyone else
I need not defend my political vision

No sons or daughters go off to fight
Because of anything that I say or do
But war will not cease of its own accord
No moving of money makes it less true

I can say kind things and show my support
The only thing worse is not even to care
The words I say, meaningless, useless
It’s easy for me, for I am not there

If I believed it, I’d say, “Wait. Do nothing;
Or else he may set the whole world afire.”
I could say I believe to hold back is better
But were I to say it, I would be a liar

Powerless, unable to stop a mass murder
Intervention may mean the death of us all
So, we answer the cry for help by saying,
“We pray for you and hope you don’t fall.”

To cover our fears of atomic destruction
Supportive words hang on digital display
Perhaps if we allow the bully his toy
He’ll go no further after getting his way

If only it were true that a taste of victory
Made conquerors quit; one land controlled
The wanton wishes of children who know
Nothing of madmen, bloodthirsty, bold

I cannot assist in their hour of darkness
Or insist that others answer the pleading
My heart hurts for those brave defenders
But my pain is painless; I am not bleeding

I cannot say “Fight,” nor can I say “Wait.”
It’s not my problem or burden to bear
After all, it’s easy to speak in abstractions
It’s easy for me because I am not there


© 2022 Kevin Trent Boswell

Photo by Алесь Усцінаў

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