Month: July 2024

Born destined for schizophrenia
Nothing he could do to prevent it
Wondered why he had to have it
Why couldn’t he have been like others
Not stricken with a mental health curse
Why the hallucinations, the delusions
The disorganized thinking and the voices
Sometimes he felt like taking his life
But despite the terrible symptoms
And feeling like ending it all
He was stronger than that
The medicine and the talk therapy
Ferried him through the stormy seas
He managed a successful career
A counselor for the mentally ill
Married a wonderful wife
Had a great life

Bob Boyd

Saw her in a dream a week after we broke up.
In the dream she wanted to get back with me.
But I was an introvert and she an extrovert.
Me always home by myself and lonely too much.
Her always out with friends, didn’t like staying home.
So I told her I couldn’t live that way and she had to go.
Lost track of her in the streams of the passing years.
Heard she married a trucker and drove trucks with him.
Saw her in another dream a few weeks ago,
Fire all around her as she bid me goodbye.
Next day saw in the nightly 7PM news,
Her and her trucker died in a house fire.

Bob Boyd

Don’t know why I called my Chihuahua Fred.
I guess it just seemed like fun to call Fred Fred.
He was such a fearless and rambunctious pooch.
He’d always chase bigger dogs out of the yard,
And they’d run away from him fooled by his bluster.
It was as if God put the heart of a lion in him.
And he had the spirit of a courageous hero.
When a pit bull was about to savage a neighbor’s child,
Fred charged the pit bull before he reached him.
The pit bull savaged Fred like a little rag doll instead
And left Chihuahua Fred bloodied and dead.
The child got away because he sacrificed his life for him.

Bob Boyd

I was a good man in my day.
Born in Burlington, Massachusetts
Followed the golden rule to the letter
Tried to live right, respected everyone
Married my high school love, Marjorie
Worked in a lumber factory six days a week
Went to church every single Sunday
Helped with the collections, sang in the choir

Then an accident at work almost killed me
Went to the hospital, lost both legs
Became a depressed and broken man
Barely making enough money to live on
Why did God let this happen to me
I was a devout churchgoer who served Him

Marjorie found a whole and new man
She said sorry I can’t take it anymore
Broke my heart in a million pieces
Never got over losing her forever
I could have tried to be like those
Inspirational disabled guys
Smiling on TV news shows

Maybe once I could have been like them
But that was no longer legless me
Gave up on God and my lousy life
On a Sunday church morning In 1995
When I shot myself to death

Bob Boyd