Month: September 2025

She was a nice lady
more than pretty enough
prettier on the inside
which mattered more
we had a nice date together
it seemed we could have had
a loving romantic relationship
but she felt we were incompatible
because I didn’t play golf
so in other words batting balls
around the ground
was more important than
the multiple benefits
of a heart to heart
soul to soul connection
I was grateful for that insight
into her character
and felt no sorrow
or disappointment
from her superficial
batting balls around
the ground rejection

Bob Boyd

Walking down Elm Street, Greensboro
many years ago

I spotted a man who looked like Santa Claus
standing behind a stand

I cannot remember his name

I only remember he stood out

Instead of giving Christmas Gifts
to passers by

He was a poet offering his finely crafted poems
to the world

as good as getting longed for Christmans gifts
on Christmas morn.

Bob Boyd

Her beauty was incomparable.
Flowers faded by comparison.
Painters could never capture it.
Poets could not put it in words.
To the despair of legions of men.
She never gave her love to them.
She surrendered her heart to God.
Became Sister Angelica instead.

Bob Boyd

While reading Du Fu’s poems and feeling such peace, I pause and think about how this serenity could be shattered by another that’s supposed to love me.

An argument the night before, an unkind word, a caustic remark,
my peace assaulted, my patience strained.

Though in rare, lonely times I pine for a caring, supportive female companion, at other more sobering times, I realize the insertion of another into my solitude could sabotage my serenity, compromise my peaceful life.

My occasional romanticization of an idealized other devoid of drama, free of tensions, love without friction, enduring forever, is as unrealistic as believing in Saint Nick bearing Christmas gifts.

Bob Boyd

September 29th, 2025. Today the weather
has finally gotten cooler.

It’s been like summer up till now.

Temperatures as high as 80, like a
sweltering fall

instead of invigorating cool winds
and lower temperatures.

You might be a summer person.
You might bask in the hot summer sun.

Me, I like the cooler weather and
dislike the heated rays of that hotter season.

Maybe because I’m at an age with the sun
can be like an enemy to an older person’s skin,
the ever present threat of skin cancer.

Or maybe it’s because I’m originally from a
much colder climate than where I live now.

Whatever the reason, I’m basking in the fall
winds and enjoying the refreshing, colder weather.

Bob Boyd

Despite claims of levitation from different quarters,
I just do not believe any human has ever levitated.

The evidence I’ve read seems more like hearsay
and embellished legends.

Were levitation attainable, I’d think we’d have
scientific, observable proof by now.

I’ve read some Catholic saints have levitated,
but those claims could easily be embellished,

or the alleged writings of saints making such
claims could have been altered

to make the faithful think those dedicated to God
were granted supernatural powers.

I also don’t believe because many claims of
supernatural abilities have been easily debunked.

And I believe in the quote “extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence.”

Bob Boyd

He senses they are coming for him,
as if he were somehow connected to them.
They come through his bedroom wall.
His mind becomes subdued, his body weak.
He feels his body being lifted off his bed;
it feels like a floating cloud.
They carry him through his bedroom wall,
as if it’s no longer solid matter.
Next he’s in their huge, oblong ship
strapped on something like an examination table.
The inside of the ship has a sterile, metallic smell.
He doesn’t like the look of the strange grey beings
and their unblinking, large black eyes.
He senses they are soulless and unfeeling.
They hover over him with medical-like instruments
in their abnormally long fingers and spindly hands.
They start extracting fluids from his body.
He feels weak and drained; he passes out.
He wakes up in his bed, his head aching,
his body sore, his mind dazed.
He feels like he’s had a terrible nightmare,
but he knows for sure it’s something worse.
And he fears they will be back for him again.

Bob Boyd

I can put up with a woman’s rabid politics.
I can endure with her talk about mansplaining
and her rantings about toxic masculinity.
I can withstand her constant dramas
and unhinged behaviors.
I can accept her fake body parts and
bloated buttocks enhancement.
I can suffer her constant nagging
about leaving the toilet seat up.
But I cannot live with her dislike of
my favorite ice cream, Häagen-Dazs.
That’s where I draw the line.
That’s the deal breaker.
That’s where we break up.

Bob Boyd

It all begins with love and bliss
that eventually levels off a bit,

or it levels off a lot.

The romance is no longer as
24/7 incredible,

though it might still be good

But sometimes at that juncture
It starts to go bad

and keeps growing worse.

I know this from experience
and how it goes so bad

that there’s no turning back.

Bob Boyd

Why do some have to come
into this life disabled

when others come into it
with perfect health?

Why are some fated from birth
to suffer a mental health crisis

later in their lives, say in their
early twenties,

at a time just when their lives
are really just beginning?

Why are some innocent babies
born with cancer

when other babies are
born with perfect health?

I cannot fathom the whys
of these terrible misfortunes.

I only know my heart aches
at the mere thought of them.

Bob Boyd

There are intelligent ghosts,
and they can interact with you.

The worst is when they look at you
and whisper your name.

If that isn’t enough to freak you out,
you might feel one touching you.

They can make you feel icy fingers
or freezing breath on your body.

They can make things go missing
or move in your home.

When they’re around, the air gets cold
and follows you from room to room.

Lights in your house may mysteriously
go on and off.

My advice to you, stay away from the
haunts of ghosts and ghost tours.

You never know when an intelligent
ghost might be watching you

and decide to follow you home.

Bob Boyd

He worked out all his life, healthy as a horse,
strong as a bull.

Super fit, the fittest of all his peers.

Disease free in his fifties from the right diet
and working out daily in the gym.

Still healthy as a horse, strong as a bull, people
marveled at how good he looked.

Cancer in his late fifties, dead at age sixty

despite his superior fitness and the healthy diet
he scrupulously maintained.

His doctor said, “Sometimes you can do everything right
and still get sick.

Sometimes you can do everything wrong
and never get sick.”

Bob Boyd

She was an attractive, single woman
who lived in her house alone.

Crime and break ins had risen
in her city

that prompted her to buy
a gun for protection.

Her friends, opposed to guns,
thought she was being paranoid.

One night she heard someone
breaking into her house.

She grabbed and loaded her gun
and yelled I’ve got a gun.

The man trying to break into her
apartment yelled I’ve got one too.

The air exploded with gunfire
and the smell of gun powder.

When the shots died down,
one of them was dead,

a serial killer who planned on
raping, torturing and killing her.

Bob Boyd

he prowled the city streets hunting
for prey

he beat his many victims nearly
to death

he robbed them of their money
stole their watches and jewelry

made a good criminal living off all
the easy prey

until he tried to rob a petite woman
who had attained a special skill

and as he was about to strike her
she shot him dead.

Bob Boyd

To all the women and girls named
Karen who never act inappropriately
or crazy,

I hate how your name has become
synonymously when women who do.

I hate how fate and chance have put
that stigma on innocent you.

The curses of Medusa upon the cad
who put that unfair curse on you.

I pine for the day when the Karen fad
will pass,

and you can return to a normalized life
without your name

defamed and linked to deranged
behavior.

Bob Boyd

I recall Taoist Masters writing about meditating
near trees.
They claimed a peaceful energy emanated from
the trees.
I believe they probably were right; it does seem
more peaceful spending time near trees.
I remember the Taoist even have a meditation
method tied to trees, standing like a tree.
Having tried it decades ago, I found it was
an effective, potent method.
You stood with your knees bent and you arms
positioned as if holding a giant ball.
I know that treelike stance would give one
the peace of a steady tree.
I believe with years of standing like a tree
you would become One with the Tao.

Bob Boyd

When it’s good
It’s good
When it’s bad
It’s draining
And can’t be
Good for
Your mental health

You feel lonely
You think another
Will fill the emptiness
In your desolate life

But when You get
Another
You have To adapt
You have to
Compromise

You may not
Get along
After the
Newness
Of each
Other
Wears off
And You
End up
Sacrificing
Your privacy
Your life
And always
Keyed up
You begin
Missing
Those peaceful
Happier days
When you
Were alone

Bob Boyd

Friends, acquaintances, and icons dying.
Times and things you grew up with fading
or faded away, as if they never happened.
Drive In Theatres, Studebakers, Phone Booths,
Typewriters, Transistor Radios, TV Dinners,
Martin Luther King, Aldous Huxley,
Ernest Hemingway, Sharon Tate, Farah Fawcett.
You’re fading away too.
Body older, weaker, balance not as good, mind
not as sharp, health problems, minor and/or major,
bones may be brittle too.
What’s a body to do?
Acceptance. Acceptance. Acceptance.
There’s not much else you can do.
You’re fading away too.

Bob Boyd

He was a good kid
and an excellent swimmer.
On a summer’s day, he
went missing.
A search ensued.
Eventually after searching
his known haunts,
his body was found
drowned in a pool
in a sand pit.
Never found out why
this good kid
excellent swimmer
died in that pool.
It made no sense.
I read of a phenomena,
shallow water blackout,
sadly that may have
happened to him.

Bob Boyd

As the town grew
crime grew, murders
too, till the town was no
longer the peaceful place
it used to be, till the town
became so crime ridden
people began leaving it.
The exodus kept growing
and growing and growing.
Stores went out of business.
Office buildings emptied
till the entire town was
boarded up and abandoned.
And even the criminals left
the town that became a ghost town.

Bob Boyd