Day: July 13, 2024

Established in 1939 by the Nazis
Radical eugenic measure
Restoration of the pure Aryan race
Elimination of those “unworthy of life”
Psychiatric, neurological, physical disabilities
Genetic and financial burden on the country
Killing of disabled children the purpose
Murdered by medical overdoses and starvation
Up to 10,000 under age 17 the final count
Philipp Bouhler, Director of Hilters Chancellery
Karl Brandt, Hitler’s Attending Physician
Architects of the heartless, horrific slaughter
I’m hoping a punishing hell awaited them

Bob Boyd

The first time I saw you, far from my home in Massachusetts
You were at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Encouraged by my high school friends, I’d gone there with them.
I remember how you walked by and gave me that brief look.
I thought you had such a beautiful face and the prettiest blue eyes,
And gorgeous, brown hair hanging beneath your shoulders.
Inwardly I gasped so affected by the way you looked at me,
And I watched you stroll away with a group of girlfriends.
But I was only in New Orleans for that one holiday night.
And you were a never come true dream that passed by me.
But on the long ride home I couldn’t stop thinking about you,
And like that old cliche, what might have been had I met you.
After a few weeks passed, I stopped thinking about you
Until my first day at the University of Massachusetts in Boston,
That miraculous moment in my Comparative Literature class
When you were in the seat next to me and you remembered me.
And you’ve been beside me ever since going on 20 years.

Bob Boyd

He put his life on the line for his country,
An honorable and patriotic young man.
Saw many other honorable patriots die,
Did things to other humans he never
Would have done in times of peace.
Couldn’t keep track of how many
He killed from afar and hand to hand,
Lost count after over two hundred.
Remembered some of their dying faces
As death closed their eyes forever.

Witnessed dishonorable soldiers,
Comrades in the American army ,
Supposedly always good guys,
Rape and kill women in small village,
Shoot their men and children to death.
Couldn’t get the wicked My Lai massacre
Out of his head. Returned to the states
With PTSD, Agent Orange, and many
Nightmares about that massacre, and
All the human lives he had taken.

Began to reason why when it was
Do or die orders by a government
That a Secretary of Defense confessed
It was all a “terribly wrong mistake.”
Then he had a sobering realization:
Pawns on both sides of the war had
Died in vain for that terrible mistake,
And that everybody lost in wars.
He threw away his many medals and
Became a pacifist for peace.

Bob Boyd

Family too poor to send her to college;
She never nurtured that dream anyway.
Aced her high school classes, didn’t buy
That everybody had to go to college or
Risk becoming a nobody in their lives.
She started her own small business,
Cleaned rich peoples’ fancy houses,
Took self enrichment college course
Part time nights for personal interest.
Aced all of them like in high school.
Small business became giant business,
Paid her more than most college grads,
In debt for years because of college loans,
Would ever make in their lifetimes

Bob Boyd

New car
Sweet
Showroom
Scent
Crisp
Upholstery
Shiny Fresh
New
Bells
And
Whistles
The
Smoothest
Ride
Like
Being
In heaven
On the
Highway

Bob Boyd