He was a mountain of a man, and now, he is a man beneath a mountain.

CPR Calypso

Billy-Bob Boiko
Was the father of the clan,
Well respected amongst his peers
He was mountain of a man,
Pound for pound, magnifico!
He was worth his weight in gold,
But each pound of flesh was killing him
He was prematurely old.

He denied his diabetes
He ignored the heart disease,
He smoked two packs a day, or more
You should have heard him wheeze,
But he claimed it was his allergies
He'd never been sick before!
While a shadow of death was hovering
Outside his bedroom door.

The family freaked when he had chest pain
And called a "9-1-1" emergency,
They screamed and moaned to the dispatcher
With overwhelming urgency,
The ambulance crew should have brought a hoist
Because Billy was immense,
They had to fabricate a gurney
From a neighbors redwood fence.

It was a terrific tale
Of sound and fury,
A rich, full life
Lived in a big, damn hurry,
Ignoring simple rules
Of pleasure and pain,
Fourteen dishes for dinner
And no alcohol refrain,
A boatload of dependents
As his life went down the drain,
When he flat-lined and keeled over
And left nothing but a stain.

He did the CPR Calypso
During the ambulance ride,
Clearly brain dead from anoxia
Oh how, his family cried,
They pointed fingers left and right
There was a thunderstorm of blame,
But underneath it all, I hope
They were floundering in self-blame.

They had unreal expectations
For the medical team that day,
They thought Billy-Bob would be revived
And he wouldn't have to pay,
Because that's the all-American dream
For any foreign son,
America, the land of the free
Should apply to everyone.

Billy-Bob Boiko
Is now a man beneath a mountain,
His pigeon-crap plastered statue
Sits in a dried up fountain,
His baby brother Besnik
Has stepped into his brother's shoes,
He tops the scales at four-fifty
Like there's nothing left to lose.

Fibril_late/ 4/17/08