My Archived Poetry Blog With 3,750 poems
Good companies keep people
Bad companies lose people
It’s not always about the money
It’s about how people are treated
I recall a documentary, Excellence
That profiled excellent companies
One of the companies, a grocery store
Where employees didn’t get paid much
But they were treated with respect
Listened to, helped, and praised
That’s employer excellence
That’s workers valued like royalty
Bob Boyd
My ex girlfriend had heaven-born beauty
Never seen a woman more beautiful
Then I got to know her better
And saw dark traits in her soul
That crawled out when she felt
More comfortable, less guarded
She became selfish and mean
Argumentative and unstable
And she cheated on me with
A sleazy guy with lots of money
Lesson learned. Don’t put too much
Emphasis on outer appearances
And to coin the title of an old song
Take time to know her
Bob Boyd
Unlike males of your Siamese Fighting Fish species
You were supposed to be able to get along with other fish
You did good in a five gallon tank with three tuxedo guppies
Impressed by your ability to get along nonviolently
I graciously put you in a ten gallon tank, a sweet break
But ungrateful you tried to attack the yellow guppies
Ticked me off, exiled you back to the five gallon tank
A life sentence for your deplorable behavior
And that was no way for a lady to behave!
Bob Boyd
When my world was young, few things mattered
Unlimited exuberance, hardly a care
Opportunities for love everywhere
Wild unabandoned times, living free
Perfect everlasting health, no medical worries
Party time days and nights, everything great
Old age never a consideration, unimaginable
Living in the sunshine of spring life forever
Till hairs began to gray, skin began to wrinkle
And my body starting falling apart
Like an old rusty failing machine
And the darkness of a winter life descended.
Bob Boyd
As a little snot-nosed kid at some point
I became aware of old people and
I thought they were like some other species
That came into the world that way
and had always been like that
And I knew instinctively I’d never be like them
When with age I saw everyone gets old
It didn’t seem like it would happen to me
I was young forever, old age not a reality
As if I had that fountain of youth in me
At age fifty, I started waking up to the reality
Of old age beginning to creep up on me
Now after many years I’ve made it there
And I kinda don’t care when some
Little snot-nosed kid who’s never been anywhere
Thinks I’m some old people species.
Bob Boyd
Cousin Norman seemed like such a nice guy
Gave me a ride when I was hitchhiking to school
When I was sixteen years old, had a great conversation
Got out of his car thinking what a nice guy
A month later he robbed a store, killed a young sales guy
Sent to jail after that, broke out and killed a prison guard
For ten years never found, was out in the open
Writing poems in shy town before he was captured
And put back behind prison bars again
Yet Cousin Norman seemed like such a nice guy.
Bob Boyd