Category: Poems

I read that plants can recognize their relatives,
and that sounded bizarre to me

because I know plants don’t possess a
consciousness,

so how can they possibility have an awareness
of family members?

And does that mean they have sisters, brothers,
aunts, uncles and grandparents?

It all seems so absurd and unbelievable to me,
yet I just read plants can recognize relatives

by “chemical cues released by their roots,” and
can distinguish their relatives that way.

Now I wonder if plants have family picnics
and family get togethers?

Bob Boyd

She was quiet in high school
and a nice girl who never
got in any trouble.

So I was surprised to see
her one night in Boston’s
seedy Combat Zone by
herself.

When I and some friends
said hi to her, she looked
embarrassed and acted like
she didn’t know us.

The fact she was alone
on the streets of strippers
and hookers, suggested
she was into bad stuff.

And I don’t know what
happened to that quiet
well behaved girl back
in high school

that led her to the streets
of strippers and hookers
in Boston’s Combat Zone.

Bob Boyd

My friend, Rory, that lucky
bastard, won the mega lottery.
after taxes about $60 million.
Somehow Rory blew it all in
six years of wild spending,
and he got hooked on drugs.
Last time I saw him he was
homeless in the streets and
had lost his once keen mind.
I tried to help him, but he
wouldn’t accept my help or
help from social services.
Now people say he looks
like a walking dead zombie.
Sometimes good luck can
become the worst luck.

Bob Boyd

A Lot of Noise in Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Jubilant, young lads carousing the streets.
At an age when they’re full of extra energy
that they burn off with shouts in the streets,
some get a little too rowdy, and there’s a
price to pay, police restraining them and
taking them away, maybe some jail time.
I’m glad I’m not one of them tonight. On
the ground with police all over them. And
too much noise for me in those streets.
Glad I’m in Greensboro, NC US tonight
instead of noisy Preston, Lancashire UK.

Bob Boyd

I remember how hot she was in high school
and how I would have loved to have been with her.

But now sixty two years later if I saw her I’d
never recognize her,

and she probably wouldn’t recognize me. And
if I’d been with her, it probably wouldn’t have

lasted anyway, and if it did and we married
and she died before me, my heart would have

been broken in a million pieces and just like
Humpty Dumpty I’d never be able to put those

pieces back together again. So maybe it’s
better I never got with her sixty two years ago.

Bob Boyd

On a news video I saw a hippo lunge
out of the water and with his mouth

wide open tip over a silver fishing boat
with a shocked and frightened man in it.

The man emerged and grabbed onto
the tipped over boat and climbed on it,

and I thought for sure the hippo was
going to resurface and kill him,

but on a boat nearby two men had
rifles shouldered,

and the hippo just vanished under
the water.

Maybe he tipped over the boat just
for a prank,

or maybe he saw the men with the rifles
and swam away hidden underwater.

Bob Boyd

I used to walk her home when I was in grade school,
third or fourth grade.

I didn’t know what romantic love was all about then
but I remember it felt good talking to her.

I lost touch with her after grade school, and now
I barely remember her.

I think her first name was Susan, and I wish I had
gotten to know her better when I was older, and

I wonder where she is now, how her life went, and
I hope Susan’s life went well.

Bob Boyd

I remember the day some guys I didn’t know well
were getting more and more spaced out on weed.

Another guy not spaced out on weed, began to
talk about some serious problems he had.

But the spaced out guys on weed didn’t care. They
said don’t bring us down,

meaning fuck you and your whining we’re too high
to listen to your petty problems.

The guy, rejected, walked to his car, got in, looked out
his car window, and shouted to the spaced out guys …

“Fuck you too!”

Bob Boyd

I remember how you were a bully when you were
twelve years old.

All the little boys in your neighborhood were
frightened of you.

But I wasn’t when you pushed your bike into
my bike and I pushed mine into yours.

You left me alone after that until you became
a beautiful teenage girl

and talked me into coming into your grandmother’s
house when she wasn’t there.

And you kissed me oh so deliciously and began to
seduce me, but I got a freak bloody nose,

and that ended what might have been an afternoon
of my first taste of carnal pleasures.

Because you had some kind of a bad reputation
my parents forbid me to see you again.

And you disappeared from my life except for one
day when I saw you in high school with some guys.

I never saw you again after that, but now I wish
I could have found out more about you,

like why you only lived with your grandmother
without a mother and a father, and if I had maybe

I could have helped you to be a better person without
a bad reputation.

Bob Boyd

Andy and Renee trekked to their favorite camping site,
got there just before dark.

Pitched their tent, lit a fire, and they got ready to turn
in for the night.

Darkness covered the camping site and an unusual
quiet permeated the forest.

Then they heard a loud baying in the forest coming
closer to their tent.

Andy peered out the tent while Renee stayed in her
sleeping bag shaking.

The forest lit up with bright red light and something
blew Andy out of the tent.

Two red light flashes followed along with the baying
and the tent and Renee vanished.

And neither Andy nor the police ever found out what
happened to her.

Bob Boyd