Day: February 19, 2026

Though I never knew you,
coming home for lunch from work

sometimes I saw you walking,
dressed elegantly,

I think in your late sixties
or early seventies,

and despite your many years,
you still looked beautiful.

Ten years later, after I returned
from the Philippines,

I saw you once more, sadly,
most of your beauty was gone,

and I worried you wouldn’t
live much longer.

I never saw you after that:
I fear you are dead.

If only, if only, I could have
gotten to know you.

Bob Boyd

I’m talking a hike in a nearby forest,
minding my own business, per usual.

The entire forest goes silent, no birds
squawking, no insects making a racket.

I know from reading fake stories about
monsters this silence means one of them

has entered the forest; I know it’s supposed
to mean danger and horror has arrived.

The fake stories about monsters were
halfway right.

When my ex-girlfriend appeared, looking
evil as hell, kinda like a monster as well.

Believe me, no monsters had anything
on her, terrifying as she looked.

Because I always thought she was possessed,
I made sure I armed myself with a cross and holy water.

When she charged me with fingernails brandished
as long as knives and screeching like a bona fide demon,

I held my cross in front of her face and doused her
with holy water as a back up.

She screamed loud enough to break the sound barrier,
her face looked like a demon’s.

She flew out of the forest screaming and swearing,
and she never bothered me again.

Bob Boyd

Melinda went to college to be a teacher,
though she got good grades, she put more
effort into partying and binge drinking.

She graduated with a 3.00 but a 4.00 in
partying and binge drinking.

Unknown to her, the cumulative effect of
all that binge drinking messed up her mind,
clouded her morality.

When she began teaching, she was like a
superstar, loved by her students, praised by
the principal and the senior teachers.

But because her mind was messed up
and her morality clouded from all that
binge drinking, she did something naughty
with one of her preteen students.

Now Melinda is no longer teaching;
she’s serving a five year prison sentence
for her inappropriate behavior with that
preteen student.

Bob Boyd

Ronny was an adventurous soul
as well as a daredevil.

He was also a born again Christian
who talked in tongues.

He was curious too, decided to attend
a Pentecostal snake handling

religious meeting deep in Kentucky
led by the famous Reverend Notts.

When the reverend handed him
a hissing rattler to hold,

Ronny caught up in the religious fervor,
grabbed it a little too tightly.

The rattler, angry as hell, bit Ronny on
the neck,

and Ronny saw blazing white light
bright as the sun.

Seconds later, Ronny passed out and died,
maybe he made it to heaven.

Bob Boyd