free verse poems some fiction, some nonfiction
My friends are dead Zen and Tang Dynasty poets.
When I read them daily, it is like I am hanging
out with them,
and I think to myself who needs any more friends
than these great poets?
Their words, their philosophies, their wisdom,
provide me with all the socialization I need,
far better and more fulfilling than spending my days
listening to the idle chatter of many my age
still in the peopled world.
Bob Boyd
get my attention with this poem of yours:
Beneath the skin of
The one we fondle today,
There is a skeleton,
Propping up the flesh.
Ikkyu
Why couldn’t you have just written something
less graphic, less disturbing?
You could have written something less drastic, like
the woman you are fondling today will be dead someday.
That, though still disturbing, would have been more palatable,
gone down easier.
Now if I ever fondle a woman again, your buzzkill poem
will at some point pop into my mind
and wreck the illusion that I’ll be holding her forever.
Besides, you were supposed to be a freakin’ monk,
not some playboy writing about fondling women.
Ikkyu, if you hadn’t been a monk, I’d say damn you,
but I can’t afford any more bad karma in this life.
So in regard to your disturbing poem I’ll just say,
Ikkyu, why did you have to?
Bob Boyd
In his misspent, wasted youth
Sitting, profiling, in a pool hall,
Hard eyes, looking tough to fit in.
Often skipped days of school,
Had no time for education
In a small city in Massachusetts.
Inhaling a Lucky Strike cigarette,
Exhaling smoky circles in the air
Unfiltered, only manly way to go,
Greaser haircut, thought he was cool,
Thought he was super tough.
Cue ball breaking a rack to pieces,
Clatter of numbered balls
Speeding all over the pool table
Bouncing off the banks
Thudding sounds erupting
Some high and low balls
Dropping into the table pockets.
Cigarettes thrown in spittoons.
Hissing sounds when hitting the water.
Guys swearing over missed shots,
Losing serious betting money,
Some gangsters in the making.
Like Lucky Hall, 6’6” lean machine
Gangster mean and crazy as hell,
Always dressed in black.
Strolled over to him and
As he was taking a drag
On his unfiltered cigarette,
Lucky stuck a gun in his face.
He sat casually in a chair,
Pool stick in hand, unfazed,
Guns rarely seen back then.
He smiled and reached for the gun,
And said to Lucky, “Is that real?”
Not out of bravely was he unafraid,
Couldn’t believe the gun was real.
His nonchalance didn’t get the result
Lucky was looking for.
Lucky turned away, his black trench coat
Swirling in the smoky air,
Lucky looking gangster cool,
Dangerous, and genuine.
Two years later Lucky’s luck ran out.
Shot to death in faraway Alabama.
Probably put his gun in the wrong guy’s face.
Bob Boyd
We were childhood friends, Sarah and I.
She was the sweetest little girl.
And at age seven, I had a little
crush on her.
When I was thirteen and about to ask her
to be my girlfriend,
Sarah’s father died, and she and her mother
quickly moved away
before I got a chance to see if we could keep
in touch,
and I thought that was the end of my infatuation
for her
until when I was twenty one I saw she had become
an actress in a movie.
My infatuation rose in me again, and I sent her a
letter about how I’d always cared for her
with the hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d have a
chance with her.
But, as I should have expected, she never answered
my letter.
And I read she had been dating a famous actor. Admittedly,
I was broken hearted.
When she died in a tragic plane crash with the famous
actor a year later,
I cried over her and thought to myself if only … if only …
she and her mother hadn’t moved away
maybe she would have been still alive and with me, a regular
guy, who’s just a mill worker,
but would have loved her forever and treated her like a queen.
Bob Boyd
She said she was just joking
when she threatened to shoot
the president with a Glock when
the president was coming to her
big city.
When the Secret Service came
knocking, shocked, she said she
was just joking and that she didn’t
even own a Glock.
Of course, her excuse didn’t exempt
her from the consequences of a threat
to a sitting president.
And she’s just 21, sort of beginning
her life, but now she may be about to
lose some of it in a prison.
And I wonder who was it that put
enough misinformed hate in her
to even make a joke about shooting
a president.
Bob Boyd
On a Sunday afternoon
the police pulled up
behind her car
newly arrived at her home
her and her husband in it
the police tell her to
get out of her car
she’s bewildered
has no idea why they
are handcuffing her
she asks why
but the police officers
cannot tell her why
say its an investigation
and she will get the
answer at the police station
they guide her into the
back of their squad car
she’s shocked
can’t believe it
upon arriving at the
at the police station
she is hyperventilating
and she feels like she’s
going to throw up
sad to see her suffering
shocked and
breaking down
it’s hard to watch her
crying and anguishing
Even though her suffering
is of her own making
her reputation destroyed
her life as it was
now over
a prison sentence
in her dark future
because she is a teacher
who sexually abused
a 15-year-old student
Bob Boyd
Rapid political people go crazy over politics, capable of
physically attacking those with different political views.
They’re easily brainwashed, easily used, easily led.
And they don’t even realize it;
no matter how smart they otherwise are.
Some of them have become the useful idiots of dangerous
political movements that care more about power
than the populations they gain power over.
Bob Boyd
I was surprised to see this title of a YouTube
Crime Show: 18-Year-Old Executes Her Best Friend –
Doesn’t Realize Camera Caught Her
I saw the police interview with the girl who stabbed
a girl her age to death, who was actually
her former best friend.
She was so petite and so cute that it was hard to
imagine her stabbing anyone to death, and it wasn’t
like she stabbed her many times, just once.
She wasn’t like an evil person, but she was evil enough
to pull a knife on an ex-friend and stab her in anger.
In the interview she portrayed herself as the good guy;
she believed stabbing her ex-friend was in self-defense,
probably more so because the ex was bigger than her.
She didn’t realize her former friend had died in the
hospital, but, long story short, her former friend started
the fight, so she was hoping the stabbing was in
self defense.
It didn’t go quite that way in court, a three-year prison
sentence that the mother of the victim felt was too
lenient and an insult to her daughter’s memory.
Sad though, that what would have been just a
fight between two teenage girls had to end so tragically.
Sad though, that the girl who stabbed her former friend
to death will have that on her soul for as long as she lives.
Saddest of all that her former friend, who was the same age
as her, is dead, just a corpse now, buried in the cold ground.
Bob Boyd
So sad some people take their lives by jumping
off high places like buildings and bridges.
So sad things get so overwhelming that they
feel they cannot go on,
that death is preferable to living.
And on my God what a terrifying way to go
out of this world.
Imagine the terror on the way down, knowing
you are going to be broken in pieces when
you hit the ground with the force of hundreds of feet.
It is my fervent hope that when they die they land
in an afterlife where all those torments will vanish,
where they will be peaceful and happy forever.
Bob Boyd
The sun has risen
and she’s reminded
of the risen Christ
both shining brightly
on a sin ridden world
both heralding a
glorious new day
despite the horrors
despite the suffering
plaguing this planet
the shining sun and
the risen Christ
guiding lights
rays of hope in
the ever-present
darkness in this
spinning world
Bob Boyd
He’s feeling lovelorn, the old man marooned and
hiding in a desolate town,
evading the ever pursuing, determined Law,
knowing if he ventures out of the town, odds are
the Law will find and arrest him for
torturing, sadistically slaying, the monster
who raped and murdered his wife.
Because there’s no justice in this woeful world,
the Law will keep searching for him, despite the fact
he did a public service by removing a monster
from this world.
So he remains in the obscure town, alone and
lovelorn, forever missing his dead wife.
Bob Boyd
after he stabbed a man to death. He was living
with a woman and her husband in a polyamorous
relationship that went insanely bad. Not long after
the husband used a Ouija board to summon a demon,
something went awry with him, the boyfriend.
He saw the husband and the wife having sex, and he
went crazy acting as if the husband was raping what
he saw as his girlfriend, and he got a knife and
stabbed the husband twenty times.
The wife became hysterical, and he ran away from her shocked
and realizing the horror and the consequence of his attack.
The husband lost too much blood to be saved and died.
He eventually surrendered himself to the police, and during the interview he seemed like a good guy plagued with serious mental health problems, and I think the other person in his head, maybe the summoned Ouija board demon, took over his otherwise nice guy persona.
But, of course, the nice guy persona, and maybe temporarily possession, didn’t exonerate him from stabbing the husband to death and a prison sentence of twenty-seven years for first degree murder.
But 27 years isn’t enough. He should have been given life in prison for taking a life. But maybe as some attest, a Ouija board is nothing to play with. Maybe a demon really got inside his confused head and caused the murder, but, more
likely, he’s not completely sane.
Bob Boyd
On a true crime show
a woman with a nice
voice and a sweet
Southern accent is
calmly explaining
why she couldn’t
have killed her
ex-husband who was
shot to death and
the police think it
was a family affair
since the family
hated the ex-husband
and their daughter
was in a custody
battle with him
for custody of
their two kids
I think to myself
the woman seems
too nice to have
participated in the
murder of her
husband even though
I know she did and I
know the police have
text messages between
her and her family
setting up the murder
of her ex and that
his new girlfriend
was more like
collateral damage
But I’m still thinking
she looks and sounds
too nice to be an evil
murderer but I know
she really is and it
baffles me how she
can look and sound
so nice yet be a
cold blooded killer.
And, as the police
proved her entire
family was involved
in the planning of
the murder and in
the cover up
And I think to myself
how could you people
be or become so evil
that you were okay
with murdering that
ex-husband and his
girlfriend sort of
by accident
At least they got
caught and went
to prison
Life in prison
for the daughter
and father
Life in prison
for the mother
with parole after
30 years
(She’ll probably
be dead in 30
old as she is)
10 years for the
son for hiding
evidence
Bob Boyd
A killer storm is rising
over weakened countries
their cultures on the brink
of the coming annihilation
unwittingly abetted by
their oblivious leaders
despite the people’s protests
many of them sent to prison
real patriots silenced
real patriots shut away
the others unable to prevent
the rising, unstoppable doom
Bob Boyd
All through your life
friends come and go
some you could trust
some you couldn’t
some in childhood
some in adulthood
some as work-friends
but through it all
the truest friend of all
your best friend Y O U
Bob Boyd
How forlorn your life
can become
when you enter
the world of women
seeking true love
carrying the dream
fates you never
imagine coming
inflicted upon you
but if you’re lucky
you’ll find true love
and the world of
women will be
a blessing for you
Bob Boyd
He went to the Emergency Room with what he thought would be a routine problem waiting for a few hours, seen for a few minutes and back home. But to his astonishment, he was tested with instruments and machines and told he was staying there; they’d get him a hospital room when one was available.
They gave him more and more tests and blood drawn constantly. He felt like a rat in a lab. Then came the diagnosis, a blood cancer.
How the hell is this happening?, he thought. I’m Mister perfect health. I’m Mister don’t eat red meat, and with no cancer in my family and have worked out for decades. Yet there he was diagnosed with a blood cancer that was trying to kill him. It seemed impossible that something that only happened to others had happened to him. It seemed impossible that the cancer he was sure he’d never get had stricken and weakened him.
It took months of infusions and medications. For a while it looked like he was going to be doomed when the infusions and medications were not killing the cancer, and his cancer doctor found his case channeling. Then his doctor sent him to another cancer doctor for her suggestions. He retured with the outline for a new treatment, and ever so gradually the cancer began losing its death grip on him. More months of the infusions, a new medication, and eventually he was cancer free, sort of like being reborn with a second chance at living.
And he’s been that way for three years and kind of grateful he had the cancer. He derived enormous personal and spiritual growth from it and an appreciation for the medical field and the loss of his fear of going to doctors. And his hardwon battle against the cancer became like a happy ending. And should the cancer return, he’s perfectly okay with that. So far so good.
Bob Boyd
Sometimes a person with a face that looks evil is the same inside. Of course, the old saying you can’t judge a book by the cover, usually applies. But, not always. She was like that, and I can’t even write her name here because I feel like some of her evil would escape out of her name.
I don’t get scared about many things, but her face scared me. I saw more evil in her face than in any face I’d ever seen before. It was as if she was one of a devil’s minions cast upon the earth to darken days and spread evil upon the land.
And I wasn’t far from wrong when it was revealed she was a widow six times over from six husbands she’s poisoned to death and buried in her backyard.
At first, it was thought she was just impossible to live with and each of those six husbands just left her and moved out of town. But as the runaway husbands kept increasing and family members kept calling the police about their missing male loved ones who’d been married to her, the police had to investigate.
But, despite their investigations that began with husband number three, it took them till husband number six to search her property with cadaver dogs and find out her backyard was her burial ground of all those husbands.
And though she was finally arrested and sent to prison, the five officers who arrested her all died mysteriously of massive heart attacks seven months later. Maybe it was an awful, extraordinary coincidence, but I think her evil and vengeful thoughts about them manifested into the bodies of each of those officers and ended their lives so tragically. And I know much more about her, things I dare not say, because that evil woman is my sister.
Bob Boyd
In high school Mark wasn’t wild about
high school girls like the rest of us
for a while I thought he was gay but that
wasn’t the case
he was just impervious to their sweet and
cute charms
unlike the rest of us who simply adored them
and wanted one for a girlfriend
there were many girls who had a crush on Mark
maybe more so because he was indifferent
but I don’t think a need to be with any of them
was coded in his DNA
two years after Mark graduated from high school
he went to India and became a Hindu monk
he returns to America once a year to spend some
time with his family
and he is always dressed like a monk when he
visits them
and seems incredibly content and happy
sometimes I’d wished I could have been like Mark
but I knew I couldn’t live without a woman and
that I’d probably go crazy as a woman-deprived monk
I think some people like Mark may be born to be monks
and maybe were monks in former lives
if reincarnation is real
Bob Boyd
Dear Grim,
You tried to take me out twice
I have to give you credit
they were really nice tries
your scythe nearly ended me
completely both times
I think you gave up because
I didn’t give a damn about dying
I think that indifferent attitude
took the fun out of your
trying to slaughter me
but, Grim, don’t lose heart
maybe the third time
will be a charm for you
Bob Boyd
I met her on a dating site,
long black hair, alluring blue eyes
slim comely body, nice smile,
mind blowingly beautiful.
But when we met, one of the first things she
said to me was, “I thought you said
you worked out?”
Because I was a tall ectomorph
with decent musculature for my
slim, hard gainer physique, she
thought I was inadaqute, expecting
a muscled up, easy gainer mesomorph.
Her ignorant insult, not a good beginning, lol.
Strike one.
I took her to a nice restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida
where I lived back then in my 30s.
But that restaurant wasn’t good enough for her,
and she complained about it.
Strike two.
Then she tried to flirt with the waiter. Prudently, he
ignored her, and she bad mouthed him to me.
I said, “I can’t believe you’re being like this.”
She said, “I am like that.”
Strike three.
And at that moment, in that nice restaurant, she
became insufferably ugly to me.
I was relieved when the date ended and surprised
at how, like a fast fading flower her beauty wilted
in front of me, in a telling moment in a nice
restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida.
Bob Boyd
He has a YouTube Channel in Singapore with over
700,000 subscribers.
He visits scary paranormal places, ghost haunts,
cursed roads, houses, forests, et cetera.
Sights and sounds that would wilt even the strongest
of men, do not faze him.
He’s got the bravery of a superhero and he’s funny
as well.
If you’re afraid of dark and cursed places beware
his scary adventures.
If you have enough grit to go with him, you’ll be
well entertained, maybe a little scared as well.
His YouTube Channel is called Sneaky Sushii, and it’s in English.
Go there and enjoy his great videos.
Bob Boyd
I see the rioting and the looting
in France
I see the destruction of heritage
sites as well
supposedly 800,000 rioters today
October 26, 2026
It saddens me to see the France
I knew damaged like this
the beautiful Paris, France I visited
in 1967 will never be the same
Bob Boyd