A Ladybug in My Apartment

I spy a little orange ladybug
clinging to my bathroom door

I think about scooping it up
on a tissue and taking it outside

but it is so terribly cold out there
I think it could freeze to death

I decide to just let it alone
to its own devices

I surmise the ladybug is safe
in my apartment, no predators

plenty of water and maybe
some miniscule food

I haven’t seen the ladybug in days
it’s warmer now

I hope it went outside the
same way it came in

and found a warm home to find refuge in
when the weather gets cold again.

Bob Boyd

As Tears Go By

Watching and listening to Maryanne Faithful
in a YouTube video

singing her break out hit
when she was in her early twenties
in the sixties

the song, As Tears Go By

my heart captivated by her youthful beauty
my ears enchanted by her voice

and I always loved that somber song

but now I’m becoming somber
because her youth, her great vocals,
and her beauty are gone

tears begin to well up in my eyes
because Maryanne Faithful
is no more:

December 1946 – 30 January 2025

RIP beautiful Lady, beautiful soul.

Bob Boyd

Sitting with a Guru in a Dream

In a dream last night
I’m sitting next to a guru in India

what I was doing sitting next to
a guru, I have no idea

a crowd of Indian people sat
before us

I felt the guru most have
had some prominence

unlike Okie from Muskogee me
by comparison

a woman in the crowd asked
us what are the colors
associated with the spiritual path?

having no idea what she was talking
about and not about to make some
bs answer up, like red is the passions
white is the purity, et cetera

I deferred to the presumably enlightened
guru, thinking the colors were related
to a Hindu parable or something like that
which he would know

the guru rose to his feet as if about
to give us some pearls of wisdom
then he walked off to what looked
like a vendor’s cart and left
pushing it away

surprised, like the crowd, I wondered
if he were making something like a
profound Zen point by his actions

upon reflection this morning, I wondered
if he were a cigarette vendor like the
enlightened Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
and he was practicing spiritual theater
with his silence and walking away
with a cart, a more profound answer
beyond my comprehension.

Bob Boyd