Isn’t It Lonely Together

At first there were so many I love yous
she could hardly count them,
But as the years passed by
the I love yous became nil.

She was dying from a lack of affection
and being taken for granted.
He was more interested in drinking with friends
while she stayed home alone.

Then one day she heard a country western song
entitled Isn’t It Lonely Together
and she knew what she had to do.
She left him a note that read I’m gone
and because we don’t have a relationship anymore,
and I’m tired of being so unloved and alone.

He tried to coax her back, but it was too late.
He said he would kill himself if she didn’t come back.
She called his bluff and stayed strong and free of him.

After that, he often got drunk and picked up stray women,
one night stands who never got involved with him.
She was more careful, took her time to find another
love and eventually found a good, attentive man,
got married and had a loving husband for the rest of her life.

Bob Boyd

She Was Like a Radiant Lily Flower

She was like a radiant lily flower
She had that kind of shining beauty,
cornflower blue eyes and luxurious blonde hair,
wavy and below her shoulders
that could make a man gasp at the sight of it.

For two teenage summers she was my girlfriend
and we vowed one day we would get married.
But I should have known it would never last.
I was from the working class. My father worked in a factory.
She was from the middle class, her father an executive.

She was off to college. I didn’t have the grades or the money.
She became a homecoming queen. I became a jilted wreck.
when she left me for a rich college kid with the right pedigree.
Lived my life like a crazy man after that, not caring about anything.

Took me years to put the pieces of my heart back together.
I wasn’t as strong back then as I should have been, as I became with the years
and the knowledge that must people have broken heart moments
and disappointments as they travel on the mystery tour of this uncertain life.

Bob Boyd

From a Catholic Girl to a Black Magic Witch

She told me she was a black magic witch.
She said she had demonic familiars
that she could unleash on anyone
who met with her displeasure

I knew her when she was a Catholic girl,
always sweet and devoutly religious.
I wondered what went wrong with her
until I learned that madness ran rampant in her family.

I was saddened but not entirely surprised
when she had a psychotic break with reality
and had only imaginary black magic powers
minus any demonic familiars.

I never saw her after the break down,
never heard a word about her as if she vanished
and I often wonder what happened to that
formerly sweet and devout Catholic girl.

Bob Boyd

Illusive Lasting Love

Too many loves that didn’t work out
plagued her life with sorrows and disappointments.
Two marriages that after years ended in divorce,
controlling men who turned out to be insufferable.
After decades of never finding lasting love
at seventy years of age she gave up on men and love.
Spent her final years with grandchildren and watching TV
to try to fill her elderly years with substitutes for romantic love.
But sometimes when she was alone and away from her grandchildren
and nothing good was on TV, she’d feel a stirring, a need for romantic love.

Bob Boyd

Brianna’s Magic

Brianna had a special kind of magic
the way she could make people shine
with the power of her praise.

Like Christmas lights turned on
at Christmas, smiles would light up their faces
when she said nice things to them.

Even old Mrs Guttenheimer, who rarely ever smiled,
glowed when Brianna complimented her.

She had the greatest interpersonal skills
everyone who knew her said.

But she let everyone down when she became a con artist
and scammed friends and rich investors out of millions.

Now she’s in San Quentin despite her interpersonal skills
that didn’t save her from a long prison sentence.

Bob Boyd

wood wide web

beneath the soil
exists a wood wide web
a network between
plant roots and fungi
carbon is giving the former
nutrients to the latter
and in the wood wide web
when one plant is attacked
the other plants know it
pity they cannot
defend themselves
like the fearsome
venus flytrap

bob boyd