Month: April 2024

Before they got married
She spent all her time
With him.

After they got married,
she spent most of her
time with girlfriends.

She thought he’d put up with a
Lonely with her marriage
Until he walked out the door
And never came back.

Bob Boyd

He saw them in his garden
cooking up word concoctions
To put fatal kill spells on him.
They were mad he called them out
For their evil designs against anyone
Who disagreed with them.
But they picked the wrong prey
And knew nothing about
Who he really was and
The power he possessed,
His true identity hidden.
Just as they began chanting
Spells empowered to kill him
They screamed in horror
As their bodies evaporated
And they felt the blunt force
Of his advanced wizardry.

Bob Boyd

I would like to have a cat as a pet
I love the way, unlike with dogs,
They automatically housebreak
Themselves with a litter box.
No poo on the floor, easy to
Maintain the litter box. I
Don’t like how they jump
On tables. The worst is if
You are at someone’s house
For dinner, and the cat strolls
Across the dinner table.
I couldn’t deal with that.
Which is why I’ll never
Have a cat, except Bastet.
Let me clarify. Bastet is an
Egyptian cat goddess that
I have a 12 inch statue of.
That’s cat enough for me.

Bob Boyd

He took the saying if you can believe it you can do it as undeniable truth.
To him it aligned with the Biblical faith of a mustard seed truth,
And he figured his faith and belief in being able to fly would work.
Why this cockamamie idea got into his head, no one knew?
But as he said, “I believe it with all my heart and all my might.”
He prepared himself for the day of his flight that he knew
Was going to astound the world and make forever history
By repeating If you can believe it you can do it over and over.
To further guarantee success, he visualized himself flying too.
On the day of his take off to fly like the birds in the air,
He dressed in a superman costume to give his flight some flair.
He took an elevator to the top of a ten storey building
And climbed on the guard rails, yelled Geronimo and
Soared into the sky downwards flapping his arms like wings,
The street below excitedly waiting to smash him to bits.
The gods of flight must have been with him that day;
He landed on a truck filled with mattresses and lived.
To doubters who said he never flew, he said, “I kinda did.”

Bob Boyd

Where did the years go, he wonders?
Seems he was twenty one yesterday.
Now at ninety one, death closing in,
He’s just an empty shell to those
Who know nothing about his life.
Another nondescript old man
Hobbling about on a cane. He’s
Like the dull cover of a book with
no pages within. Age has rendered
Him nearly invisible or a nuisance
To some, sucking money out of the
System with his Social Security.
Hanging on pointlessly to life
When he should just be dead.
But within that dull book cover
There are amazing stories and
A rich personal history of a life,
That none could imagine. And
Many won’t take the time to
Hear his amazing stories.

I remember when old age was
Associated with wisdom and
Elderly people were esteemed,
Respected and held in high regard.
More’s the pity times have
Changed.

Bob Boyd

On the dating app she wanted a man making $200,000;
That was her price per year. She knew the guy was
Getting off cheap to have a chance with a 50-year-old
Prize like her. Her appraisal wasn’t based in reality. A
Guy could get a younger, better looking woman for far less.
One 52-year-old guy scored a hot woman in her twenties
For only $50,000, proving that dating scene was a buyer’s
Market with a woman’s value declining with her years.

Fed up with the frustrations of online dating and depressed,
She went to a small Baptist Church near where she lived,
Seeking some divine intervention solace. She needed a
God-given fix. An attractive man her age caught her attention.
They talked and talked after church and had so many
Things in common. After two years of dating, her and that
$20,000 man got married in that Baptist Church.

Bob Boyd

His life bleak and joyless,
Kept alive with ten pills,
His complaints never ceased.
A great athlete in his youth,
How had he come to this?
Alone, his wife had left him;
All his friends had died.
Nothing left to live for,
He stopped taking his pills.
What was the use? Why
Prolong his miserable life?
He decided to kill himself.
Pointless to keep living
In such abject loneliness
And unceasing misery.

Just as he pointed his Glock
to his head and grasped the
Trigger, his phone rang.
An old flame who said she
Missed him and wanted to
See him. The romance
Rekindled, he took his pills
Again and lived twenty
Loving years with her.
He often said she was
The best medicine for him,
They died on the same day,
May 17,1996 in their sleep.

Bob Boyd

Rosalie, I believe that’s your name
Pray tell where are you?
I’m still here longing for you
I thought we’d meet in the
Springtime of our youthful days

Yet in all these passing years
In this lovelorn winter haze
Our stars have not yet crossed
Except in those romantic dreams
Which I thought were presaging
Our inevitable meeting in this life

Now I wonder if you by some
Devilish cruel design you
Were taken from me by Death
Before our predestined destiny
But my heart harkens with
The epiphany that we will
Meet in the afterlife where
Our love will be better
And forever minus
The uncertainties and
The sorrows and partings
Of this fleeting world

Bob Boyd

Rasboras, Rasboras
What liberated you?

For months all of you
Hid under the big sponge filter
Peeping out at the greater world
Of your ten gallon aquarium

I never saw you come out to eat
How did you survive?

Did fish flakes missed by the
Braver fish get delivered to you
In your sponge filter hideaway
Via the suction power?

Was your reticence because of
My Godzilla size compared to you?

Whatever the reason you broke the
Chains of your isolation,

Rasboras, Rasboras
it’s good to see you.

Bob Boyd

I dreamed we rode giant butterflies in rapturous delight
Through radiant astral planes with luminous blue skies,
Through glittering gold clouds that showered us with bliss.

Choirs of angels heralded us with voices more melodious
Than any we’d ever heard in the denser earth plane.

When we landed in a meadow and dismounted
Translucent flowers blossomed upon seeing us
Transmitting silent blessings in honor of our love
Beyond all loves, soulmates forever in eternity.

Bob Boyd

I step out of the apartment building I live in.
Giant bees swarm and buzz around me
As if I’m an intruder in their territory.
I see two of them mating on a step
Unconcerned about who is watching.
What the hell, have they no modesty?
Chidingly, jokingly I say, “Get a room.”

The other bees fly nearer paying no attention
To the indecent couple publicly copulating.
They buzz louder, fly closer to me,
Trying to intimidate me with their bluster.
Do they not know they are the intruders
Upon the previous bee-free doorway?

You might be wondering why I’m not freaking out,
Frightened about getting stung by those angry bees
flying like bomber planes around me.
It’s because I’m the apex predator here.
They don’t sting, and with a few sprays
I could take them all out like bomber planes
tail spinning to the ground in flames.

But like the Hindu Jains, today
I’m practicing ahimsa (nonviolence).
And despite their frenzied bravado,
Their madly buzzing fake attacks
Their puny intimidation attempts,
Like a deified, Roman emperor
In the stands of a coliseum arena
Making a decision to kill or spare
A defeated gladiator with
a sword poised at his head,
I give them a thumb up and
Spare their annoying lives.
Hail Caesar Bob!

Bob Boyd

She brought sunshine with her
Everywhere she went.
Everybody she saw.
Felt the rays of her charisma,
The warmth of her joy.
No matter how bad a day you had,
The sunshine she brought with her
Brightened your bad day,
And made everything okay.

Bob Boyd

She said I was too affected by the magnetic fields of the earth.
I asked her what on earth did she mean by that.
She had no idea. She just liked the way it sounded.
I didn’t mind her talking about something she knew nothing about,
And it did sound kinda cool and appealingly intellectual.
And that’s my girlfriend Daisy who sometimes talks kinda crazy,
But I love her for what to me is an endearing quirk.
At least she’s not an insufferable jerk.

Bob Boyd

The poet Theodore Roethke wrote this line:
“In heaven you’ll be institutionalized.”
Imagine if that were true,
And in heaven you had worse rules
Than on a rule-ridden, toxic job
With overlords like sociopathically strict bosses.
I don’t know about you, but for me that would be like Hell.

Bob Boyd

Maddy never had a soul
Nor a trace of a heart.
Women to him, disposables
Only for promiscuous pleasure.
His love yous, deceitful ploys
To get what he wanted from them.
Stayed with rich ones for a while,
Didn’t mind being a temporary gigolo
Until he got bored and found a newer fling.

He died penniless, womanless, alone
Never contributing anything to the world,
Only using women unconscionably,
Breaking their tender hearts wantonly.
Where he went in the afterlife, a mystery.
Given his wanton, devilish ways,
Wonder how that factored into
His after death relocation.

If there’s no such thing as Hell
Where does a womanizing Manny go?
If there’s such a thing as reincarnation,
Maybe he’ll come back as a rabbit,
Given his prurient proclivities.

Bob Boyd

Drugged up people stumbling around like zombies,
Vacant eyes, no one home in them, too far gone.
Some hardly conscious, barely upright swaying
like being blown about in random winds.
Distorted people shooting up in public,
A Disneyland of human caricatures.
Trash all over the sidewalks and the streets.
Drug paraphernalia scattered everywhere.
It’s a goddamn, screwed up sloppy mess.
Kensington Avenue, whatever happened to you?
And how is it America has fallen so far
With other drug ridden cities like this?
Shame on the rich, indifferent politicians
In charge of all of this misery and neglect
On the streets of Kensington Avenue.

Bob Boyd

Said though she loved him;
She couldn’t settle for him.
Oh how he loved her endlessly,
Would have laid down his life for her,
But he wasn’t good enough.
His 60k a year income wasn’t sufficient.
That paltry income could never buy her
All the stuff she craved and could have
With a few more zeros behind that 60k.
She hooked herself a high-prize catch
Hallelujah! She netted a filthy rich guy!
She got all the stuff she craved and more
With a filthy rich guy who cheated on her.
And she often thinks about that 60k guy,
Who loved her endlessly and
Would have laid down his life for her,
And the love she threw away.

Bob Boyd

Sometimes I wonder how it could have been
You and me
Though I never even hinted about what I was thinking
You and me
And we’ll both go to our graves without you knowing
You and me
And like everything else in life in the end it won’t matter
You or me

Bob Boyd

They don’t have wings
They aren’t from heaven
They aren’t real angels
But
With all their caring
Acts of kindness
They’re as close
As humans can be
To the real thing
God bless all
Of them

Bob Boyd

Married 50 years,
Met in high school.
Stayed madly in love,
Though all those years
In sickness and in health,
For better or worse
Like the preacher said.
Oh how I envy you.

Bob Boyd