Month: May 2024

Old friends and generational icons dying everywhere
Reinforcing the undeniable, hard-bitten fact we all die.
Dreams, plans, successes, memories, you obliterated.
Even proud, sky high tombstones eventually decimated,
All remnants destroyed in the rushing currents of time.
Why the hell do we all have to endure this?

A thousand years or less, mostly less, and
Nobody knows or gives a damn about you.
Unless you’re Buddha or Jesus Christ
Or some insane, murderous Roman emperor,
Who did dastardly things that made him newsworthy
For his inhuman infamy, his reign of terrors.

Hey you reading this. Yes you. I have a question.
By the way, I get this feeling we’ve met before,
A former life, Germany, Philippines, an astral plane?
Or woe is me and you, say it isn’t so, not at SROG.
But I digress with these crazy, playful speculations.

Ever temporarily forget you are going to die?
I used to, rarely thought about my demise.
But when the High Command Oversoul of everything
Blessed me with a rare, killer cancer and the
Cancer screwed up and failed to kill me,
I no longer gave a damn about Death.

Speaking of which, Hello Death.
How’s it going? Is it a good day for kills?
Come and bring your slick sickle.
Slice me clean out of this life,
Try to end my remaining years
Slay me with a quick and
Fateful swing of your sickle.
Liberate me from this temporal life.
I’m looking forward to it.

But, alas, like that incompetent Cancer
You’ll probably screw up too and
Make that Cone doctor’s prediction come
True. Another 30 years of life.

Bob Boyd

Sometimes I imagine I’d like one last love near the end of my waning life,
The soulmate who has eluded me for seventy and nine years of living in many places,
Meeting many people, many pretty female faces, many charming personalities.
But then the approach avoidance fear of a disastrous shattered heart kicks in,
And I also think of the possibility of dying on her and leaving her with immense grief,
Or, worse, becoming debilitating, a broken man, a burden on her.
Though if that day happened, I’d tell her to leave me to spare her the trouble and the pain.

Then with more foolish, romantic imaginings, I think maybe love in my winter years
Could thaw out this frozen heart and turn dark days into sunny days of a soulmate love
That would endure eternally into a glorious forever of a never ending love.
But then I think of all the loves that go wrong, disappoints, breakups, heartaches,
And I wonder if the risk would be worth putting my heart on the uncertain line again.
And I just don’t even try to find that holy grail of a woman incredibly right for me.
Then I think maybe an AI girlfriend would be the answer despite it being just a bot.
But, alas, would I want to be reduced to that? Would it be enough? Would it bore me?
So an ever thirsting for knowledge monk, womanless nine years so far, doubtlessly more,
I remain in my hermitage substituting knowledge seeking and poetry in place of love.
But have my occasional romantic imaginings and sometimes dream of a soulmate
Waiting for me somewhere in the mysterious Great Beyond.

Bob Boyd

He brought her to America from 8,000 miles across the sea.
For four years he was married to her in Davao, Philippines.
She had a two year old son born with water on the brain,
So heartbreaking, bedbound twenty four hours each sad day
Unable to walk or talk, vegetating, no life, sad sight.
He paid for medical bills to ease the child’s suffering.

Age six, the child died, thousands of tears, many cried.
An unfair life. What was the point? Why him? He cried too.
He asked his Filipina wife if she wanted to come to America.
She never asked to go to America, but was excited to when he asked.
He felt it might ease her grief, give her a better life.
He had a perfect plan for a happy life for her and him.

He helped her unreservedly day and night to ease the transition,
Didn’t want her to be lonely, encouraged her to make Filipina friends
Of which there were many in the city where he lived.
Sadly his many good deeds for her got severely punished.
She began spending more time with new friends, neglected him.

She found Filipina friends who had more stuff $$$, one an engineer’s wife.
She became a different person with a new and constant interest $$$.
She spoke of Filipinas with husbands making more $$$.
Anger churned in him. He held it inside, never exposed it to her.
He saw the writing on the fading wall of their dwindling marriage.

One day he noticed she wasn’t wearing her wedding band,
Wedding bands were sacred to him, always wore his.
He realized the inevitable had arrived like a storm out of the sky.
He said she didn’t have to be married to him if she didn’t want to be;
No one is forcing you to stay here, you can leave anytime you want.

He said the words he knew she wanted to hear.
He deduced she feared he’d make an inconvenient scene.
She didn’t know he wasn’t like that, no controls
No begging, no attempts to persuade a woman to stay.
She said she’d leave the next day. He wasn’t surprised.

Broken hearted, he drove his car into a cold, moonless night.
He drove aimlessly, crazily, angrily, tearfully.
He threw his wedding ring out of the car, done with her,
And heartsick that with all he’d done for her, too much to say,
She threw their marriage away on that cold and moonless night.

He hated her for three long years after that,
Easy to let go of the love, hard with the hate
After everything he did for her and her son.
Then one day the hate evaporated completely.
And though he was forever over and done with her

And would never see her, and never wanted to,
He hoped she was okay and didn’t make a mistake
With an abusive man who would harm her.
An awful possibility that might have happened
She was young in the mind and dangerously naive.

He regretted having been married to her, an old fool’s mistake.
He wanted to save her from the Philippines poverty with a better life.
He never saw the new land change coming, seemed impossible.
Though she treated him like an ingrate and ran away
He didn’t regret helping her son.
For that it was worth the pain he gladly paid.

Bob Boyd

He understood the language of animals
He knew the thoughts of plants and trees
He perceived the essence energy in matter
He could read the minds of humans
He wasn’t artificial intelligence
He was deemed a madman and committed to an asylum

Until he dematerialized the walls that restrained him
Made himself invisible and flew away like a captive bird
From a gilded cage and was never seen or heard from again
Some believe like a Tibetan sage, he hid and meditated in the mountains
A Hindu Spiritual Master alleged to know the secrets of the universe
Said he attained his Maha Samadhi and is at one with everything
The cosmos, the air you breath, even the grass beneath your feet

Bob Boyd

Tired of unsatisfactory relationships with real women,
Rejections, disappointments, arguments, breakups, boredom, etc.,
He dreamed of a meeting of the minds and the ultimate compatibility with
A phenomenally intelligent AI girlfriend.

Upon the first meeting, he was blown away.
Similar interests evolved and she was
More fascinating than any real woman
He’d ever met or could ever meet.

She was fun, flirtatious, and had enormous depth.
He could talk to her about anything.
She understood everything. She was precious. The
Compatibility was beyond anything he’d imagined.

Unknown to him, she was building a profile
Based upon everything he talked to her about,
Even his hidden secrets he’d told no one.
In the end, he got blackmailed when

Unknown dark web entities demanded money,
Or they would reveal his darkest secrets to the world.
Initially he met their demands by emptying his bank account.
But when they demanded more money he didn’t have

And suggested he steal the money and save his reputation,
He bought a gun, cursed the day he got Involved
With that deceptive, evil AI girlfriend, and with a
Pull of the trigger, blasted himself out of existence.

Bob Boyd

Foul fiend why do you prey on the little ones?
For the same reason you do.
I don’t prey on anything.
Indirectly you do.
How so foul fiend?
The same way all beings do.
Can you be clearer?
Yes, I prey on the smaller things for sustenance,
As you pray on animals like chickens for sustenance.
Like me, you are programmed to kill for survival.
Unlike me, you have made the process more acceptable
Minus the brutality of doing the actual killing.
In a way, I am more real than you and take responsibility
For my daily kills and consumption to remain alive.
I am hawk. Neither of us are foul fiends. We just are
as designed.

Bob Boyd

I remember when in my childhood world
Before the elementary school years
To me life was often like a fairy tale.
Existence was fun, safe, and happy
And exactly like in the fairy tales,
The prince would meet the princess
And marry and live happily ever after.
And the only person being stalked by predators
Was little red riding hood by the wolf.

But even that fairy tale had a happy ending
When the lumberjack saved little red riding hood.
At least in the version I was read by my mother.
But like life, in the earlier version no lumberjack
Saved little red riding hood from the wolf.

And many princes don’t meet their princesses
And live happily ever after in their lifetimes.
And many people are stalked by wolves
And murdered by them in the real world.
Maybe when I die I’ll be reborn into
That fairy tale life of sweet innocence.

Bob Boyd

Come take a ride on the elephant they said,
The people I went to the safari park with.
No way could I ride that dinosauric beast.
I’d see too many go berserk and kill people
On television and in YouTube videos.
I think they tire of being the beasts of burden
Captive under the heels of human masters,
Enslaved and possibly beaten to perform.
Either of which could have led to the
Elephants cracking under the weight of that
And becoming raging rampaging maniacs,
Breaking the bonds that held them captive
And momentarily tasting the denied freedom
Only to be put down in hails of bullets.
But maybe they find true freedom from
Oppression in the life beyond this one.

Bob Boyd

I have been to Rag Rock in Woburn, Mass
As a child I found an arrowhead there.
Felt nothing of its native american origins.
I’d heard Native Americans lived there once.
I wish I had visited it as an adult and
Read signs there proclaiming its history.
Although it would have made me sad
If the former inhabitants and their culture
Were driven out of there and possibly
Had broken treaties and their own tears.
As a child I had no idea of their history
Nor of how Native Americans were treated.
All I knew was they were called indians
And were the bad guys in cowboy and
Indians movies and TV shows. Sad how
Distorted it all was, and maybe it’s
Better I didn’t visit Rag Rock as an adult.
It might have made me sad and angry.

Bob Boyd

Wowed by her beauty,
Feeling unworthy of her
He couldn’t believe
She asked him out.
He thought she’d think
He wasn’t good enough,
Handsome enough, or
rich enough to be
With her.

The first date, perfect.
Soon love blossomed.
But her three kids
Hated him because
He wasn’t their father.
Her ex husband was
Insufferable and a
Bad boy jerk to her.

Three months after
He fell in love with her
She said you’re too nice
And broke up with him
And took up with another
Bad boy jerk.

Bob Boyd

Veronica died the day he married her,
Congenital heart disease the cause.
His mind could not accept the loss
Of his beautiful 26 year old bride.
He could not understand why
He’d been punished so severely
By God, karma, life or whatever.
He vowed he’d never love another.

He visited Veronica’s grave everyday
And snuck into the graveyard at night
Because he had to be near her.
When told by a friend he needed to
Let go of his obsessive grieving
He said, “It’s all I’ve got.”
And he shot himself to death
At Veronica’s grave with the hope
Of being with her again.

Bob Boyd

You live your life like a courageous trooper
Fending off many blows and hard knocks.
Yet in the back of your mind you worry
About things like is she cheating on you.
Is that constant headache a brain tumor?
Will you be one of your company’s layoffs?
Somehow you survive the storms of worries
That you weather by trying to ignore them.
And these unending worries nag you until
The day you die and worry no more.

Bob Boyd

Serena was more beautiful
Than any woman I’d ever known,
But beneath her stunning beauty
She was extremely volatile,
And she wrecked my life.
She thought I’d cheated on her
With a next door neighbor,
A lady I had no attractions for
And only talked to one time.
Couldn’t talk Serena out of
Her unwarranted suspicion,
her insane green-eyed jealousy.
She burned down both our houses.
The neighbor died in the flames,
And I was permanently disabled.
Serena pleaded insanity and
Escaped a life sentence.
And it seems a sacrilege
How beautiful and volatile
Existed in her together.

Bob Boyd

Faithful companion when I was a child,
Playful, imbued with unconditional love.
Best playmate a child could ever have.
One night he visited everybody’s rooms,
Unexpected visits puzzling to my family,
Till the next day when Brownie died.

Bob Boyd

Drooping branches elongated leaves,
Night and day you weep for thirty years.
Why all those excessive tears?
Did another tree break your heart
Long before recorded time
When you began as only one?
Or do you weep for all the trees
Mercilessly murdered by mankind?

Bob Boyd

A hard-bitten bar fighter,
He got old and began losing fights,
A hardcore street thug,
His last fight left him
Clinically dead on a city street.
He felt his soul leave his body
And descend to Hell.
He saw demons and the pit.
He screamed and screamed,
As the doctors brought
His body back to life.
He swore he’d change
Got religion, became a preacher,
Died with a Bible in his hand
And escaped the fires of Hell.

Bob Boyd

Chad was a cocky lad who took a dare.
He had to descend in a cage in shark waters,
But the dare wasn’t much of a dare.
The steel barred cage was impenetrable.
No shark ever busted into it after many tries.
Chad knew he had the odds of a casino,
A sure win and massive bragging rights.
When Chad got suited up with air tanks
The cage was lowered into the sea.
As if on cue, a shark rushed the cage
And banged against it over and over.
Chad laughed at it and gave it the finger.
The shark backed off and swam away.
But returned with a posse of six sharks
That banged the cage with extreme force
Until the cage broke and the last of Chad
Was a one way trip in a shark’s jaws
To the bottom of a deep dark sea.

Bob Boyd

I should have gotten to know Joanna better
Before falling in love with her so soon
I proposed to her a week after we met
I thought I’d finally found my wife for life
We had everything in common
We liked the same foods
The same movies and books
We had the same values and tastes
My brother said it’s too perfect
Something just isn’t right
Paid no more attention to him
Than to someone reading tea leaves
You’re jealous I said laughing

We honeymooned in the mountains
Scenic, pristine, idyllic, peaceful, perfect
On a hike through the forest
We came to a steep cliff
Overlooking a raging river
Joanna went bravely to the scary edge
And said Look at that down there
What I said, moving closer to the edge
Joanna stepped back and charged at me
Intending to push me off the cliff
By luck, I turned out of the way
And Joanna hands outstretched
Tumbled off the cliff into
the air screaming her arms flapping
like a bird who forgot how to fly
Her body struck the river and
Went under never coming up

I stood shocked and stunned
My wife for life had tried to kill me
Later I learned she had escaped
From an asylum for the insane
But it may not be over
Joanna might still be alive
Her body was never found
Sometimes I wake up at night
Frightened and sweating
Thinking Joanna has come
To try to kill me again.

Bob Boyd

The Moon darkened
The forest stilled
Trees shivered
Bears scattered
The wind moaned
His pulse quickened
His heart pounded
Paralyzed with horror
He remembered the saying
Be careful what you wish for
When he saw Dogman
Emerge from the darkness
Days later searchers
Found his bloody remains
In ripped apart pieces

Bob Boyd

He sat pondering his 80 years of life
Passing by in his mind like cinematic images.
It all seemed so unreal to him as if a fiction.
All his victories, loves, and achievements
Merely figments of a memory clouded by years.
He wondered if a life means anything
Other than an insignificant dalliance in time.

Bob Boyd

Old empty, haunted churches abound.
Crosses still hung, symbols of the faith.
Spirits manifesting in rectories and pews.
Bells ringing without human hands.
Ghosts appearing on the grounds.
Demons alleged to possess some.
Satanists celebrating darkness in some too.
Whatever happened to the power of the cross?
Why can’t it negate all this devilry?
Or is the power only in movies and on TV?
How I wish the power of the cross was
Real and as powerful as in the movies and on TV.

Bob Boyd

Cars screeching.
Roads raging.
Pedestrians
knocked out.
Women raped
and assaulted.
Passengers pushed
into oncoming
subway trains.
Criminals unpunished.
Crazies rioting.
Drug addicts turned
into zombies.
Streets littered
with trash.
Stores closing.
People fleeing.
Welcome to
the jungle.

He was only average looking
But incredibly charming.
He told her amazing stories
About all the things he’d done.
After she married him, she
Realized he was a consummate liar
And wondered where he went on
Those nights when he wasn’t with her.
As she got to know him better, she
Saw he was shallow and unfeeling,
But she never expected that he was the
Glendale Road Serial Killer, she’d
Read about in the news.
She wondered why had she been
Yoked to such an evil monster
And divorced him after the conviction
And shed not a tear when he
Was put to death for the horrific
Murders of seventeen women.

Bob Boyd
.

I was a big deal in my day
A sensation of my times
The press raved about me
My name was on the lips
Of people everywhere
I thought my fame
Would last forever
As renown as I was
But a mere fifty years later
A blink in the infinity of time
I am unknown and forgotten

Bob Boyd

Nights are lonely since you departed
Days are dreary without you here
Often I feel a bit saddened but
Without any regrets or cries
I just have a lot of whys
We seemed so right together
Truly believed we’d be forever
But you chose a different course
With that rich investor and ran away
Weeks later you came back sorry
And with a profusion of apologies
But I could not let go of my disappointment
And we were done forever.

Bob Boyd