Day: April 5, 2025

Bi-pedal.
3’5” to 4’2” tall.
25-50 pounds in weight.
Head larger than humans
and elongated.
Large slanted black eyes
that almost wrap around sides
of its head.
No brow ridge.
Two small slits for nose
above slit-like mouth.
No external ears.
Smooth, find-celled skin
pale bluish-gray in color.
No hair on face or body.
Long arms.
Hands have three long
fingers and a thumb.
Feet small and narrow
Four toes joined together
with a membrane.
Origin unknown.

Is this true? I don’t know
any more than you do,
as to whether it’s true,
except it’s from an
alleged 1950s Eyes Only
government document.

Bob Boyd

Bipedal.
Larger, more rounded heads
than human heads.
Small wide almond-shaped eyes
with two lids.
Large pupils, whites
of eyes pale grey.
Skin pale, chalky-yellow,
thick and pebbled.
Approximately
5’5″ in height.
Weight 80-100 pounds.
Small ears low on head.
Nose thin and long.
Mouth wider than
human mouths, lips thin.
No body or facial hair.
Body muscled and thin.
Little or no body fat.
Small hands, four
long digits, no thumb.
Legs bowed, feet large.
Origin Unknown.

Is this true? I don’t know
any more than you do,
as to whether it’s true,
except it’s from an
alleged 1950s Eyes Only
government document.

Bob Boyd

When I lived in the Philippines, I saw that skin whitening products were popular, as if having a darker skin color was not as acceptable as being a lighter hue.

I found that a sad trend when I imagined a little girl growing up thinking because her skin was darker than white, that she was somehow less attractive and less valued.

To me, the darker skins of some women in the Philippines made them more exotically attractive and natural compared to wearing false skin whiteners.

Yet, despite my take on this, it is sad that we live in a world where some people believe right or wrong that the color of their skin makes them more acceptable or less acceptable.

Sadder still that in some countries that is, or has been, a discriminative norm instead of, to borrow from Martin Luther King, valuing people by “the content of their character.”

Bob Boyd

When I first heard the saying,
“No good deed goes unpunished,”
it seemed so contrary to all I’d
known: Good deeds beget good
feelings and good merit.

Even religions expose the value
and the merit of good deeds.

But I have seen many cases
since hearing that saying
where good deeds were punished:

When I lived in Vermont,
a woman who lived in
Burlington, Vermont
always invited homeless
people into her home to
console and feed them.

For her kindness, she
eventually was sliced
to pieces by a crazed,
homeless psycho.

Two young ministers
gave three men a ride
out of kindness. The men
kidnapped the ministers
at gunpoint, shot
them to death and
stole their money
and their car.

I could cite many more
examples, some my
own, but as you can
see and probably knew,
sometimes good deeds
do get punished.

My final take on this
is do good deeds, but
be careful in doing
them.

Bob Boyd

Born into a highly religious family, with members of her family prominent in the church, she grew up a devout, Christian woman. Graduated from a Christian College, found a Christian husband there.

Sometime after they married, she got a job as a secretary at a Christian College and met a young, promising Christian student there. Their friendship deepened and despite the sin of adultery an affair ensued.

When their relationship progressed and they fell in love, the student asked her, “Why don’t you divorce your husband?”

She replied to the student, “In my church people don’t get divorced, but if he were to die ….”

Unexpectedly the student did the unimaginable and killed the husband by sneaking into his home and stabbing him to death.

The police never solved the crime. The diabolical Christian couple eventually broke up. Perhaps they couldn’t live with their shared infamy.

Years later, the Christian woman had married a dentist and had twins. The student had gone on to another college for further study.

The police decided to reopen the cold case. They traveled to the Christian woman’s house not suspecting her as a suspect but to reexamine the details of the murder.

When the Christian woman opened her door to the police, she broke down and confessed everything and was arrested along with the student.

This true crime case puzzled me. At first, I couldn’t figure out how two Christians could even consider murdering anyone for fear of, in their belief system, going to hell.

After pondering it for a while, I came up with two theories. The first was maybe these Christians ascribed to the belief that once you are saved by Jesus, you are always saved no matter what you do after being saved.

And maybe they delusionally thought even murder wouldn’t negate what they may have seen as something akin to a binding, contractual agreement.

Or, probably more likely, they believed no matter how heinous the sin, all you had to do was ask Jesus for forgiveness and the sin would be forgiven, the slate wiped clean, the soul cleansed.

Still it’s hard for me to imagine how the student, supposedly a devout Christian, could have been duped into committing a murder and ruining his life and maybe his afterlife.

I was six or seven years old and taking swimming lessons at a community pool and when I was out of the pool standing in front of the swings, I felt a soft tap on my back.

I turned around and saw a cute, red-haired girl my age smiling at me.

I was too young for boy girl romantic feelings and the power of flirtations back then, but something in me besides my back was touched. I think it was a budding romantic heart.

Before any words were spoken, the red-haired girl’s mother took her hand and walked away with her while she was looking back at me smiling.

I never saw that red-haired girl again, but, curiously, I think about her now and then even as an old man.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I’d met her again when she and I were old enough to fall in love, and I feel that would have happened.

I wonder how her life turned out. Did she have a full and happy life? Is she still alive? What was her name? But, alas, I’ll never find out any of those things.

Sometimes in overly imaginative moments, I’ve wondered if I’ll see her again in the afterlife.

Maybe she’ll be there as a beautiful, red-haired woman and tap me softly on my back, and I’ll turn around and fall in love with her.

And for reasons unclear to me, I got a little teary-eyed writing this poem.

Bob Boyd