Month: November 2024

Young people getting cancer constantly
in America now.

Many follow all the rules for
staying healthy and fit,

eating the right foods and
exercising daily.

Many theories have evolved
about this cancer plight.

It baffles me how with so many advances
in cancer treatments

and many fine physicians successfully
treating cancers everyday

that cancer still keeps spreading and
appears to be winning the war.

Bob Boyd

She fought the cold as well as she could
as it crept into her apartment day after day.
Because she couldn’t afford the heating bills,
she wrapped herself up in layers of clothing
which worked until the temperature dropped
below zero degrees and she began to freeze.
An old woman with thinning skin and sick,
she succumbed to hypothermia at age 86.
Alone and unmonied, she died because of
poverty and a lack of family or any help.
I believe this condition is not uncommon
among the many poor and alone elderly.

Bob Boyd

Marriage didn’t deliver what she thought it would.
At first it was exhilarating playing house with a husband,
but after a while it became boring and unfulfilling.
She felt trapped in a miserable relationship,
and she sensed her husband felt the same.
Tragic and sad so many marriages seem to
follow this same love forsaken love lost pattern.

Bob Boyd

His friends told him to stay out of the
place in the park after dark that
was known as The Triangle.

He went there on a dare in 2006
He went there on a bet that
he would never make it out.

He even said he’d camp there
on a full moon night to prove
nothing unholy would occur.

When he didn’t return the next day
people were not surprised that
The Triangle had got him.

They found his tent and his provisions
and his abandoned car with
no signs of him anywhere.

They didn’t know it was all a ruse
and that he was on his way to Europe
to escape his wife with a new life.

He met up with the woman from Russia
he fell in love with on an online dating site
and people still think he’s a missing 411.

Bob Boyd

He had an unsettling feeling
walking alone in the moonlight
along the paved path in
the large wooded park.
Then he heard the horrifying howl
and saw the huge wolf-like creature
standing on two feet and growling.
He ran like his feet had wings
at incredible fear-fueled speed
and didn’t stop or look back
until he was safe in his car
speeding away in the night.

Bob Boyd

She basked in lunacy.
She reveled in madness.
It seemed to suit her.
She wore it well.
Though her behavior
was often strange
and her manner
was often bizarre,
she wrote the
greatest poems
and painted the
greatest pictures.
In some ways
her lunacy was
like a God-given
miracle gift and
she became as sane
as the sanest
when she was
put on meds.
And lived a
good life despite
being fated
with what to
some seemed like
an affliction.

Bob Boyd

he used to listen to ghosts talking
with white noise on spirit boxes
he traveled to haunted locations
in small towns and big cities
eventually he started hearing
the ghost talking all the time
without using the technology
thy talked inside his head
eventually the talking began
to take possession of his mind
and he heard the ghosts telling
him to become one of them
he jumped off a bridge and did
now others hear him talking
with white noise on spirit boxes

bob boyd

always sweet at work
never an unkind word
nice to everyone
incredibly polite

different at home
mean to her husband
angel turned diabolic

poisoned her husband
to death with antifreeze
in the summer of 1973

bob boyd

he drove through his old hometown
that used to be like a patch of buildings
in the tapestry of greater Chicago
where crime was nearly nonexistent
where streets were never congested

the traffic had become stop and go
he saw thieves running out of a store
with bags of stolen goods
homeless people were everywhere

he got disgusted by the changes
he rolled down his car window
to catch a breath of air
and coughed from the smog
rolled the window back up
turned his car around
and beelined out of the city
never to return again

bob boyd

He heard a preacher on the radio say
there was no romantic love in heaven.
Maybe the preacher was right
but it saddened him to think that
romantic love wasn’t everlasting
in the heavenlies of the afterlife.
It saddened him more when he
realized the preaching radio preacher
may have been honest to God right.

Bob Boyd

Though getting back together was non negotiable for him,
he sometimes thought about the good times they had
now that he was an old man all alone at the end of his life.

Despite her being an extrovert who always had to be away from home
and him being an introvert homebody preferring to be home more
than always on the move with other people, there had been
some great and memorable times.

And though getting back together had been non negotiable for him,
he was saddened by her death at age 58, probably from a cancer,
he wished her well and hoped she had peace and eternal happiness
on the other side of this impermanent life, and sometimes wished
they could have had a compatible, lasting love.

But sometimes a fairy tale love is just a fairy tale.

Bob Boyd

for fifty years she stood by him
loved him through the years
and all the tears
when life dealt them
cloudy days and dark storms

loved him when they had money
and when they had no money
stayed by his side
during all the good times
and more importantly
during all the bad times

made a better man out of him
when he was a lesser man
and he often told her
he didn’t deserve a woman
as good to him as she was
and she said the same
to him for standing by her
for those fifty years
of lasting love when
he had been there for her

bob boyd

treacherous woman

his friends warned him about her
they said she was treacherous.
she was too hot for him to resist
he kiddingly said he liked
to live dangerously
and he could tame her
he had no idea how dangerous
things would become
he only lasted a week in his
dangerous relationship
with the treacherous woman
when he went to the hospital
with a gunshot to his back

bob boyd

When he was a kid it took forever to reach age 21
and be totally legal and totally free.
Then the unexpected happened after that
when he thought he’d be young forever.
The years began speeding up
slowly at first, then faster and faster
and faster and faster and faster!
At age sixty when he wanted the years to slow down,
They went into overdrive and seemed to go 100 miles an hour
until the days seemed to pass like the speed had doubled
just when he wanted to put the brakes on and avoid dying
as long as he possibly and humanly could.
Then one day he woke up and found out he was 80
and dying of cancer. In what seemed like a week
months sped by and in what seemed like seconds, he was dead.

Bob Boyd

when he was a kid
everybody told him
he could sing
as well as the singers
who sang the songs
on the radio
some said he sang
even better than them
so when he
got out of high school
he took the shot
at being a rock star
and he knew
he’s make it big
he sang for
various bands
for thirty odd years
until he had to face
the heart-sinking truth
that he was never
going to make it
his rock star dream
had eluded him
tired of singing in
going nowhere gigs
he resigned himself
to driving a taxi
for a living
and getting drunk
and doing drugs
nearly every night
until he and his
dreams died
on the streets
of an uncaring city
after he became
drug-addicted
and homeless

bob boyd

He always saw women in dreams,
some he knew, some he didn’t.
Some were beautiful, some were sweet.
All were in his dreams once and once only.
Dreams were the closest he ever got to a woman.
In real life he’d never been with one.
It wasn’t he was unattractive or unlikable;
He just had bad luck with women.

Bob Boyd

I saw my beautiful first love 40 years later.
I hadn’t seen her since age 17 when we parted.
I was shocked to see her beauty was erased forever.
Aging had been incredibly cruel to her.
I almost shed a tear remembering how beautiful she was
when we were young and felt as though good looks were forever.
I could see in her sad eyes she was thinking the same about me,
remembering when she said I was so handsome
and was shocked to see what aging had done to me.

Bob Boyd

They felt they had carte blanche on always being right
despite the fact they were on the left.

They’d defend even the craziest notions their lackeys
put forth as undeniable truths.

Even when the notions were indefensible and idiotic,
they lined up like lemmings to support them.

They’d become more like a mindless cult
than critical thinking followers.

One day they controlled an entire country with their insanity
and wrecked it like an out of control wrecking ball.

Until sanity and reason overruled their harmful policies,
and they were exposed and tossed out of power.

Bob Boyd

He yearned for the limelight all his life
until he got it and his life darkened.
He never imagined his life would become
like living in a goldfish bowl with so
many people hounding and pestering him.
He never expected to be misquoted and
portrayed as a villain or an unfeeling fool.
After enough of the everpresent exposure
and the never ending invasions of his privacy,
he said screw it all and dropped out of the limelight
and basked in the freedoms of obscurity.

Bob Boyd

brandon was
a nice guy who
wanted to fit in
with the in crowd
who had the
flashy cars
and the
fancy girls
got his break
when one of the
in crowd invited
him to a party
alcohol and
drugs at the
wild party
brandon didn’t
do drugs and
rarely drank
had a beer
right before
cops busted
the party
everyone arrested
included brandon
guilty by his
association with
the in crowd
wrong place
wrong time
a high cost
for trying
to fit in

bob boyd

sweet, angelic,
reared religiously
attended church
every sunday
weekdays too.

lived by the golden rule
treating others like
she’d like to be treated.

unappreciated by bad boys
some of them
saw her as a prude.

stuck to her values
and religious beliefs
remained a virgin
until she was in college
and fell in love
with a wild boy
masquerading as
a religious one.

lost her virginity
and her young life
and died of AIDs
courtesy of
the wild boy
who died too.

her parents and
church friends
wondered how God
could have allowed
that to happen
to one of their own.

bob boyd

birds fly free,
why can’t we
controlled by governments
police, schools, and jobs
during our lives
some for awhile
like schools
like jobs
some if we drive
too fast or
stray from the law
some all our lives
like governments
but birds pay a price
for their seeming
freedom
predators
govern their
brief lives

bob boyd

what causes ghosts?
are they just rewinds
of images of people
who die accidental
or horrible deaths?

are they dead people
who for unknown
reasons can’t find
their way
to the Light?

and if they are real,
why do some people
become ghosts
and not others?

maybe as some claim
they’re just
imaginary effects
of electrical waves.

whatever the cause,
real or unreal,
no way I’d ever
spend an eerie
night in a
haunted house.

bob boyd

three good kids and one bad
in their human litter,
how could three go right
and one go bad?
is it a twisted genetic thing
from a bad one in their
ancient family tree
that resurfaces sometimes
in successive generations?
is it a misfiring in some
mysterious gene?

whatever the cause
we have too many bad ones
in many of
the human litters
Hitler, Stalin, Bundy, et al.

bob boyd

pretty woman seemed
to have a wonderful life
filled with many admirers
who dreamed of being with her,
and all the loving looks
of many men who saw her.
and all the advantages good looks
can bring.

none knew what she’d been through,
men who wanted her just for her looks,
good men too afraid to approach her
for fear of her rejecting them.

the worsening fears of losing her looks
as aging began to rob her
of her lifelong signature beauty,
the costs of cosmetic surgeries
that didn’t save her waning looks,
the sobbing acceptance of
her lost forever looks.

bob boyd

His wife’s mother’s ghost haunted their house.
It would have been okay
if he had gotten along with her,
but when she was alive she always
tried to break up him and his wife.

She never liked him for unknown reasons,
maybe she just didn’t like his looks,
even though he was a nice looking guy
and had a pleasant personality.

He always thought she felt he just
married her daughter for their money.
In the end, her mother’s spirit seemed to
possess his wife and turned her against him.
She became so disagreeable and hateful
that he could no longer be with her.

After he left his wife, she became her
sweet self once again, but no way
could he go back with her and face her
dead mother’s otherworldly spite.

Bob Boyd

you may be richer than
impoverished us
but you’re no better
in your fancy clothes
grandiose houses
exorbitant cars
high maintenance
privileged spouses
with all the glitter
with all the glitz

we’re all equal
when we die
and all the riches
or lack of them
no longer divides
you from us
and like the biblical
lions lying down with lambs
we all lie down together
separately but equally
under those
indifferent tombstones
under those
indiscriminate grounds

bob boyd

she’s considered part of the masses
by those who think of themselves
as the higher intelligentsia
she’s not lost in lofty thoughts
or delusional self importance
in a world that’s a blink
in the eyes of eternity
she lives a gentle, normal life
works in a factory days
takes care of her family nights
extends kindness to all
does her best to be
a good and decent person
living by the golden rule

bob boyd

reading passages of the Bible
reflecting on the words
becoming infused
with their sacred meanings
feeling Divinely inspired
when a certain sentence
or passage stands out
and remains in your mind

you close your eyes
and contemplate it
if you can connect
even a little
with the Absolute
if you can for a moment
really feel the
sacred images
the words reveal

you unlock
the peace
beyond understanding
the bliss
beyond imagination
and get a glimpse
of The Divine

Bob Boyd

She looked
so beautiful
when started work
at the jewelry store.

I lucked out
and
got a date
with her.

It went to hell
when she
got drunk
and wanted
sex on the
way home.

Sloppy drunk
women
have never
held any
appeal to me.

I declined
the drunken
offer that
for me
would have
been like
having sex
with a corpse.

But I really
didn’t want
to have
sex with her
because it
was so wrong
to use a
drunken woman
no matter
how hot.

Bob Boyd

Leaves turning gold as winter approaches
I wish they could stay that color forever.
They look like something out of a fantasy world
instead of a sign of the approaching winter.
If they have leaves in the afterlife,
I’ll bet they stay gold forever
and never fall off trees.

Bob Boyd

margaret always loved
the hot fudge sundaes
at her small town’s
little ice cream shop
never had better she said
everybody ate there and
echoed what martha said
until a big ice cream shop
part of a national chain
moved into the town

it offered more ice cream flavors
and food than the little ice shop
and with cheaper costs
better advertising too

it stole all the customers
except martha from
the little ice cream shop
and saddened martha
a principled woman
never ate
hot fudge sundaes
or anything at
that big ice cream store

bob boyd

cameras all over the city
spying on the populace
citizens spying too
with their ever ready
cell phone cameras
to catch others
doing stupid or
criminal things
police and employers
snooping on
social media
yet despite all
the surveillance
some people still
do stupid stuff
and get caught
on camera
and on
social media
welcome to 1984
in 2024 and
shout outs to
george orwell

bob boyd

she always had to buy the most expensive designer clothes.
she blew thousands more on fancy cars and overpriced houses.
she always dined at restaurants affordable to only the rich.
she looked down on people who shopped at stores like walmart,
peasants she called them, who had no class or taste,
who’s idea of dining out was filling their faces at fast food restaurants.
despite all her arrogant airs and her extravagant spending,
she could never buy enough stuff to make her happy
she was more miserable than so-called peasants she disdained,
and all her heaps of stuff that didn’t matter one bit when she died.

bob boyd

it was the most
thrilling ride of her life
falling, falling, failing,
spinning, spinning, spinning
wafting through the air
exhilarated like never before
when the ride ended
the leaf on the ground
the ladybug
crawled off it

bob boyd

After her cheating boyfriend broke her heart,
she gave up on love and men at age 21.

She didn’t have a man in her life for seven lonely years
until she met a decent and true man at age 28.

The romance lasted two beautiful years until
her ideal love died in a car crash.

She had three more loves and two marriages
before she died at 74.

None of those loves or marriages worked out.
It wasn’t that she was unlovable or hard to be with.

She was a kind, sweet, and decent woman and fun to be with.
It was the bad luck of the random draw, never finding
the right one, never finding lasting love.

Bob Boyd

He keeps suppressing the persistent need
for a woman in his waning life.
He’s at an age where he could die any day
or become physically impaired or get dementia.

Yet, the romantic spark stills flickers in him
every now and then
despite his logical reasons
for not trying to find a woman anymore
or going through the trouble of
finding one who would want him.

In clear headed moments, he realizes
he just doesn’t want to try,
or face rejections and aggravations,
an old man can only take
so many disappointments.

Despite being lonely and
missing the love of a woman,
he gives up on romance in his aging life.
And he dreams of maybe
finding love with an ideal soulmate
in the inexorably, impending afterlife.

Bob Boyd

He wakes up to another boring day.
At age 66, he’s been retired for 4 months
and doesn’t know what to do with himself.
He’s tired of playing bingo and watching birds.
He doesn’t want a girlfriend or a wife,
but yearns for some excitement in his dull life.
He plans to do something dangerous and exciting.
He dons a mask like a bandit and begins secretly
busting parking meters in the pre-dawn morning hours
all over the city to save people money and have fun.
After busting a hundred meters without getting caught,
he satisfies his need for more excitement in his life
and returns to playing bingo and watching birds
and quietly plans his next secret caper.

Bob Boyd

He gave up on an unresponsive God
who never listened to him
or answered his pleading prayers
to heal his cancer-ridden wife
dying of the malignant disease,
his loving wife of ten years,
who never harmed a soul,
who lived to love and help others.

After his wife died of cancer
he found solace for his grief
in alcohol and drugs
that became the gods of
his new quasi religion

At least they were responsive
his communion
one drink his holy wine
one pill his eucharist
the answers
soothing heavenly highs
he never
got from God

Bob Boyd

cold days, hot nights
he has a new girlfriend
dark days now lit up
nights are ever bright
lonely days are gone
happiness increases
he hears the birds
singing in the trees
the sky is bluer than
he ever imagined
as if his senses have
been reawakened
all from a new love
and a happier life
if only that euphoria
could last forever

Bob Boyd

His life has dwindled down
to watching birds and cats.
from his old apartment window.
He’s also become a noisy neighbor
observing what his neighbors do.
His days are that boring now.

He used to be a corporate exec.
Now he’s just another retired old man
whose mind has become compromised
by the effects of his advanced aging.
In reflective moments he wonders what
happened to his once important self.
He sits in his rocking chair sighs,
falls asleep, and forgets his depression.

Bob Boyd

The days and weeks fly by,
the months and years too.
His body’s breaking down
His heart is weakening.
His bones are thinning.
Aging spots appear
on his wrinkling skin.
His days are expiring,
and he drinks himself
into drunken denial
rather than face the
reality his obliteration.

Bob Boyd

Little Red Riding Hood strolled through the forest
on her way to her grandmother’s house
with a basket full of wine and cake for her grandmother.

When she arrived at her grandmother’s house
something was off. A psychopathic, crossdressing wolf
lay in her grandmother’s bed dressed as her grandmother.

Little Red Riding Hood blew a gasket knowing the wolf
slaughtered and ate her grandmother and had the gall
and the stupidity to pretend it was her grandmother.

She pulled her sawed off shotgun out of her robe
and blasted that goddamned wolf to pieces.

Bob Boyd

Little Red Riding Hood strolled through the forest
on her way to her grandmother’s house
with a basket full of wine and cake for her grandmother.

When she arrived at her grandmother’s house
something was off. A psychopathic, crossdressing wolf
lay in her grandmother’s bed dressed as her grandmother.

Little Red Riding Hood blew a gasket knowing the wolf
slaughtered and ate her grandmother and had the gall
and the stupidity to pretend it was her grandmother.

She pulled her sawed off shotgun out of her robe
and blasted that goddamned wolf to pieces.

Bob Boyd

she put up with a lot of nonsense
with the man she once loved
he changed after they married
and gave up on courting her
she saw he didn’t value her
like he did before they wed
after years of his disinterest
she lost all her love for him
cheated on him with another
and he cheated on her too
their marriage crumbled
their nuptial bliss long gone
they started the gamble
all over again with
a new roll of the dice
her a new husband
him a new wife

bob boyd

She wasn’t a fake witch
or a woman tortured to
confess she was one.

She was a real witch
with a mastery of
the dark arts in 1606.

Her powers waned
when she got sick
and was captured
and hung to death.

After three days
she clawed
her way out of her grave
wearing the winding sheet
she was buried in.

Returning from the dead,
her powers became stronger.
She cursed all those responsible
for her death and
turned them into lepers.

She returned to her grave
after that
and died a proper death
never to stir again.

To some people
she became like
an avenging saint.
And to this day
many visit her grave
seeking miracles.

Bob Boyd

a life in the shadows
a master of deception
he fooled everyone
until he got too clever
and fooled himself
and got caught

his infamy recorded
his dark history
widely known

his last victim
a girl in Florida
12-year-old
Kimberly Leach

he got fried
in the electric chair
for 30+ murders
now he’s dead
hopefully in a
godforsaken hell

bob boyd

Everybody knew Mickey Murray
was born a big and bad bully.
He took pleasure in hurting other kids.
It was near suicidal to make eye contact with him.
He’d target you and beat you till you were black and blue.
People who knew him thought Mickey was going to prison someday.
At nineteen he got a life sentence after killing a man in a fight.
None of the people who knew him ever heard of Mickey after that.
It was as if he died in jail somewhere or vanished from life,
and nobody cared what happened to him.
They knew the world would be a better place without him.

When some of those who had known him made it to heaven,
they couldn’t believe Mickey Murray the bully was there.
Miraculously he found God in prison, changed completely,
and lived a holy life until he died in prison at age 78.
Sometimes some people change for the better.
Sometimes some people change for the worse.
The young prison minister that led Mickey to God
eventually went to jail himself for raping women
and became an atheist and remained one till he died.

Bob Boyd

Orphaned at 12
her father killed
her mother

Stuck in the
foster care system
never felt loved

Became a delinquent
sentenced to detention
got out her worse
than when she went in

At 18 in jail for being a thief
did a few years
and some self-reflection
came out reformed
built a better life
married and
raised great kids

Bob Boyd

Is true love for the few
but not for the many?

Some find it only for a while
and it doesn’t last.
Some find it many times
and it never lasts.
Doesn’t matter if you
are rich or poor,
famous or unknown.

Some never find it
and die never
knowing it.

Some fall in love
as teenagers and
it lasts all their lives.
In my view, these
are the few.

Bob Boyd