Month: November 2024

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