Month: March 2025

I couldn’t watch when they lowered your little coffin
In the ground at that Philippines cemetery in Davao
I couldn’t watch your six years of challenged life ended that way.
I just couldn’t bear it. I was holding back a thousand tears.
My heart was breaking with the worst heartaches of my life.
I had to stay in the background on that saddest of sad days.

I couldn’t get up close and watch that coffin lowered in the ground
With you such a little child, who never had a chance in life, dead in it.

Your mother was able to stand there and watch
God bless her, I don’t know how.

Born with water on the brain, you never had a chance.
No playgrounds, no schools, no friends, no high school
No girlfriends, no proms, no jobs, no love life, nothing.
You couldn’t walk or talk and your six years spent helpless in a bed, Seemingly oblivious to the world and your surroundings.

How my heart grieved for you, even though you weren’t my son.
I hope to see you in the afterlife, healed, happy and walking and talking.

And I hope you got a reward in the higher life for how
Shortchanged you were in this life.
Breaks my heart you didn’t have a better life.

Bob Boyd

When I first heard about soulmates,
I fell in love with the romantic idea
of finding the perfect one
that you would be with forever.

Like I’m sure many have found out,
finding a soulmate eludes many,
as it has me.

Then I came up with the thought,
perhaps a foolish crazy notion,
that maybe people who don’t find
their soulmates in this life
find them in the afterlife.

Related to that notion, I once read
a title of a man’s near death experience:
He Met His Soulmate in the Afterlife.

I didn’t believe it. I didn’t read it.
I felt it was contrived, and it was
the first NDE I’ve ever heard of,
after reading and listening to many,
of anyone meeting a soulmate while
clinically dead temporarily.

I have read of deathbed visions
where a spouse sees the deceased
spouse waiting for her or him
in the white light of the afterlife.

That gave me a little hope of
the possibility of enduring
romantic love in an everlasting
afterlife.

I’m probably mistaken in thinking
or wishing, that maybe, just maybe
we all find our soulmates
in the afterlife.

And it surprises me that as an old
man now, I still think of such
silly and romantic things,
but perhaps the saying is true,
there’s no fool like an old fool.

But wouldn’t it be heavenly if
my foolish romantic notion were
true, and we all found our soulmates
in the afterlife. And those that
found their soulmates in this life
would be reunited forever there too.

I find that more satisfying, like
a wonderful fairy tale ending, than
the thought of romantic love
being merely a temporary condition
limited to a brief, earthly life

Bob Boyd

I’m here because you probably
never heard of me.

In a book that hosts a single
poem of mine

it is written I lived around 1070
and was born in the Sung
capital of Kaifeng
and was an official
in the provinces.

It also reads “I had a brief
moment of fame in
literary circles.”

The reason the moment
was brief is because
I didn’t care about worldly fame.
I knew it was fleeting and
eventually we all
fade into obscurity.

And though I wrote poems
all my life, I didn’t try to
gain public recognition
for any of them.

I knew that even if I
did gain mountains of
recognition and fame
those things never endure

I was more interested
in embracing the Tao
and achieving immortality.

Long ago I read
it was better to
have loved and lost
than to never have loved at all

As a loser at love
I agree with that
and my heart goes out
to the many people
in this world who have
never had a chance to
win or lose at love

who pined for romantic love
all their lives
who saw so many others have it
in poems, books, movies
and in real life

but never them
who lost at finding the love
they never had

Bob Boyd

She was an entertainer and an extrovert
He was a supportive but homebody husband.
Two entirely different spouses, but unlike many
maybe most, they made their marriage work.

He passed away recently after a long life
with a famous and beautiful talented wife.
I hope she is able to join him in the afterlife
and continue their marriage forever there.

In high school my dream was to have what
they had, but high school dreams are often
only teenage fantasies that never become
realized in the grown up realities of real life.

Bob Boyd

Just like with the cults
some people are brainwashed
to the end.

Worst case, the Nazis.
Lesser contenders, religion
and politics.

Closer to worst, needless
wars and the people of
other countries portrayed
as evil enemies

even though those people
are pretty much like us
just wanting peaceful
happy lives

unless they become like
mindless zombies and
it’s Heil Whoever controls
their propagandized and
my country right or wrong
minds. And to their deaths
or his or her deaths they
remain the puppets
of their uber allis masters.

Bob Boyd

When I was 16 and gotten beaten up badly in two fights,
my mother, a Celtic wicca of sorts made me a Celtic Shield Knot Talisman to protect and strengthen me.

And she said now you won’t lose anymore fights. Even bullies won’t be able to beat you up.

Maybe it was the power of belief, but she was
right. After I wore the talisman around my neck,
I fought the two bullies who had beaten me up
at the same time and easily kicked the crap out of them.

But when I came up against a bully named
Casey O’Reilly, he dropped me with a single
punch. We made friends after that and he
confided in me that he had a Celtic Shield
Knot Talisman too.

But his had a preserved 4 leaf clover in the center of it,
which I concluded must have given him more luck in the fight with me.

Me and Casey became best buddies after that.
When we graduated from high school
Casey joined the Marines. I joined the Air Force.

Casey got sent to Viet Nam. I got sent to Germany.
I came back untouched by war, never in any combat.
Casey came back in a body bag despite
his 4 leaf clover Celtic Shield Knot Talisman.

To this day I don’t know what went wrong,
unless the Viet Cong who shot him to death
had one of those powerful Vietnamese
Numismatic Talismans.

Bob Boyd

guys who fell in love with her
always died young

I was old
so I thought I was safe
until our first kiss
when I felt woozy
but I shrugged it off
as just the effects
of her mind blowing
spellbinding kiss

not being superstitious
I didn’t believe
loving her would
doom me to the
grave

two months later
when I told her
I loved her
while eating
pancakes at
an IHOP restaurant
on Westover Terrace
in Greensboro, NC

(I know. Not exactly
an ideal romantic
setting
but I had to go
with the feeling
then and there
when it hit me
harder than
a Cupid arrow
to the heart)

I didn’t die
life was still good
and I was very
very alive
until I drove home
and felt a searing pain
in my chest and sped
to Moses Cone
hospital ER and
collapsed clinically
dead

I had an NDE
saw God and
he blessed me
and said don’t
eat so much salt
and told me I wasn’t
totally dead

I came to on the
exam table hearing
the invasive thuds
of a doctor who
reminded me of
Lon Chaney
slamming defibrillator
paddles on my
heaving chest

When I was fully
recovered and
discharged
from the hospital
my first thought
was maybe Miralda
was right

but not being
superstitious
I didn’t have
a fright and I’m
going to take
another shot at
being with her
tonight

and if I never
write another
poem here
you’ll know
Mirelda
was right

Bob Boyd

He saw the coffee cup
with the inverted pentagram on it
in the Goodwill thrift store
and though he didn’t know the meaning
of the inverted pentagram
he thought it looked cool on the cup

unlike the regular pentagram
he didn’t know the upside down one
was associated with evil

nor did he know the former owner
of the cup was a satanist who
practiced the dark arts
and put an evil spell on
the inverted pentagram cup

so he thought the cup was
a unique find at a great price
until he drank his first cup
of coffee in it and fell asleep

and had a nightmare of
a demon with a goat’s head
right before he was dead

Bob Boyd

The Canadian geese
flying in V’s
always amaze me
when I’ve seen
them flying in formation

and I wonder how they know
how to fly in that beautiful V

and which goose is appointed
to be at the point of the V

and if they change positions
from one of the geeze
on the sides of the V
to the point from time
to time

I read the purpose
of the point
of the V shape
the first goose
is to create
an updraft
to reduce wind
resistance for
the rest of
the flying V flock

which enables
the geeze
to fly longer
with less effort

and I just learned
that the geese
do change positions
each taking
the point to reduce
tiredness
among the flock

it amazes me these birds
somehow have that
teamwork intelligence
and it makes me
like them
even more

Bob Boyd

Edison Lighthouse song, Love Grows
(Where my Rosemary Goes) 1970.
Over 18 million hits on YouTube. Lucky fellas.
Magical, mystical song still popular with those
that hear it. And wow that Rosemary, maybe
ethereal, surely surreal, never forget her.
One in a million, mysterious goddess among women.
Every young man’s dream, greatest fantasy female
ever, song is so clever, makes you believe Rosemary’s
really a goddess, maybe she was. Maybe she still is.
O Rosemary, beautiful, mind blowing, ultimate,
should have been the love of my life, woman,
why did I never meet an amazing, magical,
enchanting woman like you? And like the song says,
“I would have loved you endlessly.”
But woe upon woes, you never existed except
in that beautiful make believe tribute song,
which I will always love, never tire of,
no matter how many times I hear it.
Listening to it now. Love grows….

Bob Boyd

When he met her in high school, his feelings were sky high.
His parents said his head was in the clouds – teenage love never lasts.

But he knew he was smarter than them about his new love and she knew it too. it was destiny that they were together, and somehow they knew their stars were aligned forever.

They saw other young loves fall apart as their love survived.
She went to college, to become an elementary school teacher got asked out by many rich college guys because of her beauty, but she always said no and stayed true.

He remained in their hometown and worked on his father’s farm, could have easily cheated on her when she was away, his good looks got the attention of many pretty, young women, but his heart stayed true because he knew she was the one.

They got married in a little Baptist church on a sunny spring day back in 1977. And in 2025, they’re still in love and happily together.

Sometimes teen love lasts. Sometimes young hearts are right about their “It’s the real thing” romantic dreams and imaginings despite the odds and the world against their real and lasting true love.

Bob Boyd

The lovelorn crooner on my YouTube romantic songs playlist is singing about how he goes crazy when he looks into this woman’s eyes, and I almost start going crazy myself remembering similar times in my life.

I bemoan the lost years and the lost loves and looking in their eyes and going probably as crazy as that singer is at this magical musical moment.

I play the song a second and a third time because I’m savoring the sensations and the memories of those going crazy and being so in love feelings.

And in an uncharacteristically vulnerable state I find myself wishing that hearts were never broken and everybody could go crazy and be that much in love for all of their lives and forever like those happy ever after fairy tales.

Then I come to my waning senses and remember the saying, there’s no fool like an old fool and I end this woefully nostalgic poem.

Bob Boyd

Unlike my kinfolk crickets who live with me in
this upscale cricket bin and think they’re
living their best lives, like uppity insects
privileged beyond measure and singing
cricket songs and partying 24/7,
being fed for free every single day –
I know the freakin’ score.

I know what you’re thinking. How can a dumb
cricket have these thoughts when other
crickets act like they barely have any brains?

You see I’m an anomaly, and I suspect I was
an SOB human in a former life with mountains
of bad karma that devolved me, that degraded
me, to this downsized ill fated cricket food life.

But despite the fact I probably was an SOB
in a reckless, wanton, evil and villainous life,
and I had to pay penance as a cricket in this life,
why couldn’t I have been a cricket in the wild
instead of imprisoned in this PetSmart gulag?

At least outta here I could have had a chance
of living a long and happy life without it ending
in the stomach of a freakin’ ravenous lizard.

My only hope, far as I can see, is that maybe,
just maybe, some tree hugging do-gooder will
get it into his or her head to come to PetSmart
and buy me and my compatriots and liberate
us from this freakin’ stinkin’ kill zone gulag
and if you live anywhere near the
Greensboro, NC PetSmart, man up or
woman up and please do. I’m begging you.

For now all I can so is practice my stealth
by dodging those scoopers every time one
of those PetSmart workers oblivious to my
plight tries to scoop me outta here and into
a frenzied monster lizard’s awaiting mouth.

So far so freakin’ good.

P.S. That’s me with the sign. I’m trying to
get what the Buddhist call merit with the
hope of a better next life.

It is said all the stars in the sky will someday become extinct unlike my never-ending love for you.

Bob Boyd

About this poem: I’ve written many love poems; for example at my Romantic Poems Blog, and one could imagine I was writing them with someone in mind. But the truth is I write romantic poems to no one in particular with the exception of maybe a few about past loves of long ago.

In those exceptions, there’s no pining. I essentially resurrect the feelings I had when a past love was in bloom even though no torch is carried for those long ago loves.

And I’ve never gone back to a love that went south. My belief is that to do so puts one in the same unhappy/unsatisfactory situation. At first with a joyous make up it seems both have changed and things are better than they ever were. But usually in time, generally after about a month, old behaviors, yours and hers, resurface and you’re stuck in that rut all over again. To me, it’s the folly of making the same mistake twice.

That said, of course some people have made things work with a second try, God bless them, I don’t know how. But I’ve never put myself in that situation. I just don’t believe in second chances when one’s heart is on the line.

Plus, I see a break up as an opportunity, a fresh chance to find someone more suitable for you and to experience the joys and the ecstasies of falling in love again.

And if a woman wanted to leave me, I’m too proud to beg her to stay and too respectful to try to talk her out of leaving. I see her kinda like a free agent in matters of the heart. And what decent man would want to be with a woman who didn’t want to be with him? It’s a losing proposition and way too controlling.

My friend Maurice said he was
going to become a monster hunter.

He intended to hunt the monsters alone
at night when the forest went dark.

I told him going into the forest alone at night
was a bad idea, and what if all those rumors
about cryptids in there were true?

He called me a pussy for being afraid,
and he was right.

I was a pussy about hunting monsters,
real or unreal, in the forests in the dark of night.

Even if there were no monsters in that forest,
bears and mountain cats prowled for prey there.

I had a bad feeling about Maurice going there alone
in the darkness of night, even with his Remington shotgun.

I almost thought about going with him for extra protection, but the inner voice inside me screamed, “DON’T DO It.”

Maurice began his monster hunt in the spring of 2007, and though I’m not usually superstitious, I noticed a full moon came out that night.

The next morning I called Maurice curious about his daring monster hunt, wondering if he found anything.

He didn’t answer his phone. I had to leave a message, and I never heard back from him.

His mother called me and asked if I had seen him. I said no and told her about his monster hunt.

The police were informed. Search dogs scoured the forest. It seemed Maurice had disappeared until the dogs discovered his body

surgically mutilated with astonishing precision and drained of blood like the cows had been on a farm a few eerie days earlier.

Bob Boyd

Could it be that romantic love
is just for procreation

like it is for
the birds in the trees
the bees in the flowers
the animals in the wilds
the fish in the waters
the insects on the ground
and in the air

and if that is the purpose
of all the I love yous
what is the point
of it all

why must all of life
keep reproducing
and reproducing
until it all dies out

Bob Boyd

His dogs began to howl in his house
for reasons he couldn’t discern.

He rushed out of his bedroom
to the kitchen where the dogs
howled at something above their heads.

Then he saw the apparition of a wolf
appear above the dogs
before it howled twice and
vanished back into the ethers.

And he remained the former
owner of his house had a
pet wolf he’d tamed that
was shot to death with him
by a gang of bloodthirsty robbers
who broke into his house.

Bob Boyd

She told him
she was leaving him
he said okay fine.
she got mad at him
for not protesting
she expected begging
or at least attempts
to talk her out of leaving
because of his indifference
she almost changed her mind
but packed her bags
and left him anyway
until a month later when
she called him and said
why don’t we make up
and get back together
he said no way I don’t
turn back the clock or make
the same mistake twice.

Bob Boyd

Hiking in the forest, he heard the forest go quiet
and had an eerie feeling.

He knew that when the forest goes quiet
a cryptic often appears.

For a millisecond, he regretted hiking alone and
without a weapon

before he heard a rumbling roar and
smelled a scent like death.

He turned around shuddered and screamed
as he saw the dogman beast

coming toward him with evil-looking yellow eyes
and elongated fangs.

He felt himself trapped in its grasp and its fangs
tearing apart his throat,

and his world went dark and his
lights went out forever,

Bob Boyd