Day: August 20, 2026

He rocks back and forth in his old
wooden rocking chair,

thinking about his years navigating
the high seas

when he was a captain of a cruise
ship and saw many countries

and met thousands of people, one
of them his deceased wife who died

at age seventy-seven of the Covid
virus that almost killed him too.

He misses his wife everyday and
wishes the virus killed him too.

Now he just rocks back and forth
in his old wooden rocking chair

and prays to God to take him to
heaven to be with his wife.

Bob Boyd

The day is tried, the night is weary
old age drained them of their vitality
and they’re slowly dying
the sun is burning out
the moon has evaporated
the clouds have left the sky
the wind has lost its steam
the rain is too weak to pour
the earth is parched
the world is dry
there are no birds to sing
and no humans to cry
everything has died

Bob Boyd

A tiger fell over a 15 foot cliff into a crocodile
infested river.

He tried to climb back up the cliff, but each time
the cliff, made of dirt or clay, crumbled,

and he fell back into the river and tried
running in the shallow part of the river

to find a part of the cliff he could climb
to the top of the cliff on,

but he couldn’t get a grip on the cliff
and, tired, dropped back

into the river and into the jaws of the
hungry crocodiles that devoured the poor tiger.

Bob Boyd