Day: February 21, 2025

I heard a term today
that I hadn’t heard before,
Foxhole Prayers.

I knew immediately
what it meant.

Years ago, no decades
ago, I heard it referenced
in the expression, “There
are no atheists in foxholes,”
referring to the terrors of
possibly dying from an
enemy bomb or bullet
while hunkered down
in a fox hole during a war.

It also brought to mind,
the near death experiences
of some atheists I read about.

In their NDEs they felt they
were in hell. And their
descriptions of demons
and people screaming and
crying and trapped in hell forever
were exactly like one would
think hell would be like.

I can’t say if their experiences
were absolute proof of a hell.
I can say they
prayed foxhole prayers,
and Christ appeared to them
in Light or in Spirit and
whooshed them out of
those hellish experiences.

Bob Boyd

In the yard across the street
Pink dogwood tree petals are falling,
Ordinary a beautiful sight.
Tonight they sadden me
Remembering the last time I saw them
When you said you were leaving me.
Now like the pink tree petals
Tears are falling from my eyes.

Bob Boyd

She was a lovely woman
and a veterinarian.

She met a bad man
who was a doctor and
a shyster.

He was an egotist
and thought
he was a godsend to women.

At first the veterinarian saw
through him, but surprisingly
she eventually ignored
his many red flags
and fell in love with him.

The doctor had a court date
for stalking and harassing
an ex-girlfriend.

The veterinarian had a
court date with an ex-husband
for the custody of
their two daughters.

Somehow, inexplicably,
the doctor convinced the
veterinarian to hire a hitman
to kill her husband and
his girlfriend.

They lined up a hitman
and met with him. Fortunately,
he was an undercover cop,
and they both got arrested.

When the veterinarian got out
on bail, she took an elevator
to the top of a tall building
and jumped off it to her death.

I believe if that evil doctor
never came into her life
she would never have
considered killing anyone
and would be alive today.

Sometimes you have to be
so careful about who
you let into your life.

They usually won’t try to get
you to kill someone,
but they can be toxic
to your wellbeing
and your life.

Bob Boyd

Some old men want a wife
just to take care of them
if they get unable to
take care of themselves.

I have to wonder where
is the love in that, and
what would happen if
he had to take care of her.

And, frankly, I’d rather
take care of myself.

And that’s how I’ve been for
ten years and probably
for the rest of my life.

But were I to get married,
I wouldn’t want her just
to take care of me.
I’d rather have her,
and her have me,
for genuine, true love
and take care of her
if, God forbid, she
got so ill she needed
me to take care of her.

Bob Boyd

It happened in Erie, Pennsylvania
where sometimes eerie and crazy
things happened to that PA populace.
Mr. and Mrs. Abrams argued daily
about Mr. Abrams’ negligence in
always leaving the toilet seat lid up.

One day it reached a horrendous
crescendo and wild chaos ensued.
Sick of Mrs. Abrams nagging
about his toilet seat nonconformity,
Mr. Abrams went off like a raging bull.
He busted the toilet seat with a hammer,
the pieces shattered on the floor.

Mrs. Abrams heard the awful racket,
went totally nuts to add to the insanity.
She screeched when she saw what
Mr. Abrams had done to the toilet seat,
picked up a chair, lifted it over her head
and busted Mr. Abrams’ head with it.

Mr. Abrams went to the local hospital
to get his head examined and bandaged.
Mrs. Abrams almost got assault charges,
but the police wrote it off as a domestic.
After a long week apart from each other,
somehow they put the pieces of the toilet
and their relationship back together.
She kissed him and he kissed her,
and he never left the toilet seat lid up again.

Bob Boyd

I know some things about NDEs
near death experiences
began reading them
in the seventies
the tunnel of light
the life review
the unconditional love
the Source
claimed to be more
real than this existence
claimed that this life
is dreamlike
by comparison

but know this:
not all NDEs are
light and love
some NDEers
felt like they
were in hell

and their descriptions
are graphically and exactly
like one would believe hell
would be

demons and tortures
hell fires and torments
cries and screams
no way out ever

except in cases where
seemingly damned NDEers
called on Christ and He
got them out

One school of thought
believes the hellish NDEs
are projections and unreal
and it appears most NDEers
never have hellish NDEs

This I have read many times;
those who have the hellish NDEs
usually return to life
full blown believers.

Bob Boyd

Some say we reincarnate
and keep coming back
until we get it right
and attain the
Sat Chit Ananda
eternal bliss
consciousness.

I’ve read of people
who claim they know
about their former lives.
I’ve read of some NDEers
who died and came
back and claim they
saw we all reincarnate.

Me, I wouldn’t want
to come back again.
Imagine coming back
on the cusp of a
nuclear holocaust
or born into horrors
like Stalin’s purges
or the Killing
Fields of Cambodia.

Others claim
we have a choice
to return to the earth
school for souls to
learn our lessons
for liberation
or stay in the afterlife
and do our spiritual work
there.

Some say it’s heaven
or eternal damnation
with no reincarnation,
Christ or Satan,
you make the choice
while you’re on earth.

I’m a believer in Christ
but I don’t know about
eternal damnation.
And I’m a bit of a mystic
and a contemplative.
And I can’t say definitively
if Christ is the only way.
I can say it’s the way of
love and forgiveness.

It may be like the Sufis
say, as many paths
to God as humans
have souls.

No way to know for sure
who is right and who
is wrong, or if there are
different truths in
the great beyond.

Me, I’d like to be in a
heaven with a soulmate
in love eternally

and partners in devotion
to a God of love
forever and ever.

Bob Boyd

He grew up rebellious
screwed up reckless rebel
troublesome in high school
kicked out many times
preferred playing pool
in an old pool hall
in a nondescript city

joined the military
didn’t adapt to the
required conformity
got in trouble there
busted down a rank
in correctional custody
had an insightful epiphany
maybe him not them

reinvented himself
embraced the military
became an officer
rescued a child in Nam
met the child’s mother
married her and
brought her and
her child to America

became a minister
led many sinners to God
when God took his wife
and adopted child
in a fatal auto accident
swore off religion forever

almost drank himself to death
after his loss of his family
one angry night killed a guy
in a drunken bar fight
disappeared after that

NYC detectives found
him ten years later in NY
homeless and incoherent
died on the way to jail
in the back of the squad car

Bob Boyd