Category: Poetry

three good kids and one bad
in their human litter,
how could three go right
and one go bad?
is it a twisted genetic thing
from a bad one in their
ancient family tree
that resurfaces sometimes
in successive generations?
is it a misfiring in some
mysterious gene?

whatever the cause
we have too many bad ones
in many of
the human litters
Hitler, Stalin, Bundy, et al.

bob boyd

pretty woman seemed
to have a wonderful life
filled with many admirers
who dreamed of being with her,
and all the loving looks
of many men who saw her.
and all the advantages good looks
can bring.

none knew what she’d been through,
men who wanted her just for her looks,
good men too afraid to approach her
for fear of her rejecting them.

the worsening fears of losing her looks
as aging began to rob her
of her lifelong signature beauty,
the costs of cosmetic surgeries
that didn’t save her waning looks,
the sobbing acceptance of
her lost forever looks.

bob boyd

you may be richer than
impoverished us
but you’re no better
in your fancy clothes
grandiose houses
exorbitant cars
high maintenance
privileged spouses
with all the glitter
with all the glitz

we’re all equal
when we die
and all the riches
or lack of them
no longer divides
you from us
and like the biblical
lions lying down with lambs
we all lie down together
separately but equally
under those
indifferent tombstones
under those
indiscriminate grounds

bob boyd

she’s considered part of the masses
by those who think of themselves
as the higher intelligentsia
she’s not lost in lofty thoughts
or delusional self importance
in a world that’s a blink
in the eyes of eternity
she lives a gentle, normal life
works in a factory days
takes care of her family nights
extends kindness to all
does her best to be
a good and decent person
living by the golden rule

bob boyd

reading passages of the Bible
reflecting on the words
becoming infused
with their sacred meanings
feeling Divinely inspired
when a certain sentence
or passage stands out
and remains in your mind

you close your eyes
and contemplate it
if you can connect
even a little
with the Absolute
if you can for a moment
really feel the
sacred images
the words reveal

you unlock
the peace
beyond understanding
the bliss
beyond imagination
and get a glimpse
of The Divine

Bob Boyd

She looked
so beautiful
when started work
at the jewelry store.

I lucked out
and
got a date
with her.

It went to hell
when she
got drunk
and wanted
sex on the
way home.

Sloppy drunk
women
have never
held any
appeal to me.

I declined
the drunken
offer that
for me
would have
been like
having sex
with a corpse.

But I really
didn’t want
to have
sex with her
because it
was so wrong
to use a
drunken woman
no matter
how hot.

Bob Boyd

Leaves turning gold as winter approaches
I wish they could stay that color forever.
They look like something out of a fantasy world
instead of a sign of the approaching winter.
If they have leaves in the afterlife,
I’ll bet they stay gold forever
and never fall off trees.

Bob Boyd

margaret always loved
the hot fudge sundaes
at her small town’s
little ice cream shop
never had better she said
everybody ate there and
echoed what martha said
until a big ice cream shop
part of a national chain
moved into the town

it offered more ice cream flavors
and food than the little ice shop
and with cheaper costs
better advertising too

it stole all the customers
except martha from
the little ice cream shop
and saddened martha
a principled woman
never ate
hot fudge sundaes
or anything at
that big ice cream store

bob boyd

cameras all over the city
spying on the populace
citizens spying too
with their ever ready
cell phone cameras
to catch others
doing stupid or
criminal things
police and employers
snooping on
social media
yet despite all
the surveillance
some people still
do stupid stuff
and get caught
on camera
and on
social media
welcome to 1984
in 2024 and
shout outs to
george orwell

bob boyd

she always had to buy the most expensive designer clothes.
she blew thousands more on fancy cars and overpriced houses.
she always dined at restaurants affordable to only the rich.
she looked down on people who shopped at stores like walmart,
peasants she called them, who had no class or taste,
who’s idea of dining out was filling their faces at fast food restaurants.
despite all her arrogant airs and her extravagant spending,
she could never buy enough stuff to make her happy
she was more miserable than so-called peasants she disdained,
and all her heaps of stuff that didn’t matter one bit when she died.

bob boyd

it was the most
thrilling ride of her life
falling, falling, failing,
spinning, spinning, spinning
wafting through the air
exhilarated like never before
when the ride ended
the leaf on the ground
the ladybug
crawled off it

bob boyd

After her cheating boyfriend broke her heart,
she gave up on love and men at age 21.

She didn’t have a man in her life for seven lonely years
until she met a decent and true man at age 28.

The romance lasted two beautiful years until
her ideal love died in a car crash.

She had three more loves and two marriages
before she died at 74.

None of those loves or marriages worked out.
It wasn’t that she was unlovable or hard to be with.

She was a kind, sweet, and decent woman and fun to be with.
It was the bad luck of the random draw, never finding
the right one, never finding lasting love.

Bob Boyd

He keeps suppressing the persistent need
for a woman in his waning life.
He’s at an age where he could die any day
or become physically impaired or get dementia.

Yet, the romantic spark stills flickers in him
every now and then
despite his logical reasons
for not trying to find a woman anymore
or going through the trouble of
finding one who would want him.

In clear headed moments, he realizes
he just doesn’t want to try,
or face rejections and aggravations,
an old man can only take
so many disappointments.

Despite being lonely and
missing the love of a woman,
he gives up on romance in his aging life.
And he dreams of maybe
finding love with an ideal soulmate
in the inexorably, impending afterlife.

Bob Boyd

He wakes up to another boring day.
At age 66, he’s been retired for 4 months
and doesn’t know what to do with himself.
He’s tired of playing bingo and watching birds.
He doesn’t want a girlfriend or a wife,
but yearns for some excitement in his dull life.
He plans to do something dangerous and exciting.
He dons a mask like a bandit and begins secretly
busting parking meters in the pre-dawn morning hours
all over the city to save people money and have fun.
After busting a hundred meters without getting caught,
he satisfies his need for more excitement in his life
and returns to playing bingo and watching birds
and quietly plans his next secret caper.

Bob Boyd

He gave up on an unresponsive God
who never listened to him
or answered his pleading prayers
to heal his cancer-ridden wife
dying of the malignant disease,
his loving wife of ten years,
who never harmed a soul,
who lived to love and help others.

After his wife died of cancer
he found solace for his grief
in alcohol and drugs
that became the gods of
his new quasi religion

At least they were responsive
his communion
one drink his holy wine
one pill his eucharist
the answers
soothing heavenly highs
he never
got from God

Bob Boyd

cold days, hot nights
he has a new girlfriend
dark days now lit up
nights are ever bright
lonely days are gone
happiness increases
he hears the birds
singing in the trees
the sky is bluer than
he ever imagined
as if his senses have
been reawakened
all from a new love
and a happier life
if only that euphoria
could last forever

Bob Boyd

His life has dwindled down
to watching birds and cats.
from his old apartment window.
He’s also become a noisy neighbor
observing what his neighbors do.
His days are that boring now.

He used to be a corporate exec.
Now he’s just another retired old man
whose mind has become compromised
by the effects of his advanced aging.
In reflective moments he wonders what
happened to his once important self.
He sits in his rocking chair sighs,
falls asleep, and forgets his depression.

Bob Boyd

The days and weeks fly by,
the months and years too.
His body’s breaking down
His heart is weakening.
His bones are thinning.
Aging spots appear
on his wrinkling skin.
His days are expiring,
and he drinks himself
into drunken denial
rather than face the
reality his obliteration.

Bob Boyd

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner of a grocery store
eating a Christmas pie he ripped off from the bakery.
When he pulled out a plum and said he was a good boy
Store Security caught the theft on camera
and hauled that bad boy, a 21-year-old repeat offender,
off to the pokey where he spent 30 days and then more
for stealing an inmate’s Christmas pie.

Bob Boyd

Little Red Riding Hood strolled through the forest
on her way to her grandmother’s house
with a basket full of wine and cake for her grandmother.

When she arrived at her grandmother’s house
something was off. A psychopathic, crossdressing wolf
lay in her grandmother’s bed dressed as her grandmother.

Little Red Riding Hood blew a gasket knowing the wolf
slaughtered and ate her grandmother and had the gall
and the stupidity to pretend it was her grandmother.

She pulled her sawed off shotgun out of her robe
and blasted that goddamned wolf to pieces.

Bob Boyd

she put up with a lot of nonsense
with the man she once loved
he changed after they married
and gave up on courting her
she saw he didn’t value her
like he did before they wed
after years of his disinterest
she lost all her love for him
cheated on him with another
and he cheated on her too
their marriage crumbled
their nuptial bliss long gone
they started the gamble
all over again with
a new roll of the dice
her a new husband
him a new wife

bob boyd

a life in the shadows
a master of deception
he fooled everyone
until he got too clever
and fooled himself
and got caught

his infamy recorded
his dark history
widely known

his last victim
a girl in Florida
12-year-old
Kimberly Leach

he got fried
in the electric chair
for 30+ murders
now he’s dead
hopefully in a
godforsaken hell

bob boyd

Everybody knew Mickey Murray
was born a big and bad bully.
He took pleasure in hurting other kids.
It was near suicidal to make eye contact with him.
He’d target you and beat you till you were black and blue.
People who knew him thought Mickey was going to prison someday.
At nineteen he got a life sentence after killing a man in a fight.
None of the people who knew him ever heard of Mickey after that.
It was as if he died in jail somewhere or vanished from life,
and nobody cared what happened to him.
They knew the world would be a better place without him.

When some those who had known him made it to heaven,
they couldn’t believe Mickey Murray the bully was there.
Miraculously he found God in prison, changed completely,
and lived a holy life until he died in prison at age 78.
Sometimes some people change for the better.
Sometimes some people change for the worse.
The young prison minister that led Mickey to God
eventually went to jail himself for raping women
and became an atheist and remained one till he died.

Bob Boyd

Orphaned at 12
her father killed
her mother

Stuck in the
foster care system
never felt loved

Became a delinquent
sentenced to detention
got out her worse
than when she went in

At 18 in jail for being a thief
did a few years
and some self-reflection
came out reformed
built a better life
married and
raised great kids

Bob Boyd

Is true love for the few
but not for the many?

Some find it only for a while
and it doesn’t last.
Some find it many times
and it never lasts.
Doesn’t matter if you
are rich or poor,
famous or unknown.

Some never find it
and die never
knowing it.

Some fall in love
as teenagers and
it lasts all their lives.
In my view, these
are the few.

Bob Boyd

Imagine if Haagen-Dazs was served in heaven.
I wonder if it would taste any more heavenly than it does on earth.
On the other hand, it tastes so divine here, I can’t see it tasting better anywhere.
However, it would probably be free in heaven and have more flavors.
I don’t think Haagen-Dazs would be served in hell, if ice cream could be frozen there.
I suspect the eternally damned denizens of hell would be devilishly tortured with tasteless store-brand ice cream – never to have Haagen-Dazs again.
That would be worse than being harassed by demons, scorched by hellfire, or burnt by brimstone.
None of that could compare with the torturous torment of being deprived of even so much as
a teaspoonful of Haagen-Dazs forever.
I think I’ll go to church this Sunday … just in case.

Bob Boyd

Imagine if there were no life after life.
No heaven. no hell. no afterlife.
Your life just shut down like your computer.
All the near death experiences,
all the visions and dreams,
suggesting live continues
into the afterlife
were all illusionary.
And all that was you
erased forever.
I believe in what the NDEs tell us –
life goes on forever,
but if we all die into nothingness
I’ve reached a point in old age
where I’d be okay with that.
I no longer fear obliteration.
I can now accept it easily.
I used to worry about it in my youth
until I realized there’d be no me
to worry about if I died,
and the I that is me
died forever.
Now that I’m older
and my dying day is closer
I can accept the possibility
of dying into nothingness
even easier, and I’m okay with it.

Bob Boyd

for the first time since
he fell in love with her
he realized she was just what
was contained inside her gray matter
her face, her arms, her legs
and everything else
were not the real her

she was just that brain organ
lodged inside her beautiful head
the rest of her were only accessories
that her brain moved and directed
like an ingenious puppet master

and her personality,
thoughts, feelings
moods and quirks
were powered by it

and the day came when
although he loved her beautiful face
and her curvaceous body
he knew he could never
get along
with her gray matter

bob boyd

he was harmless but eccentric.
50 years old and lonely,
he’d never been with a woman.

he had a little girl’s dollhouse
he’d kept since childhood
when his sister abandoned it.

he dreamed of being
with pretty women
that he saw daily
on the city streets.

since all of them
ignored him
and he knew
none would ever
be with him,
he carved
little wooden dolls
that looked like them.

he kept the wooden dolls
in his little girl’s dollhouse
and dreamed that they
were real and loved him.

he talked to them
as if they were alive
gave them names
and put little doll
dresses on them.

he made up birthdays
for each doll
and bought tiny
christmas presents
for them all.

he talked sweetly
to the wooden dolls
and kissed each one
good night every night.

at age 55 he died
with 100 wooden dolls
in his dollhouse
and never knew
the love of
a real woman.

bob boyd

the rasbora fish hover in the aquarium
almost like suspended animation.
are they contemplating
the mysteries of the universe?
are they having a moment
of group self-reflection?
are they telepathically having
an important meeting?
or are they just chilling out in
the warm water?
i would like to know how it
feels to live and swim
underwater like they do
but i suspect
i’ll never have any gills.

bob boyd

jingle bells
snow falling
chestnuts roasting
sleigh rides
smell of pine trees
blinking tree lights
dangling ornaments
many presents
wrapped with care
hanging stockings
full of surprises
a child’s first christmas
filled with joy

bob boyd

he can’t remember
when he first
became aware
of the fact
he wasn’t
going
to get out
of this life
alive

he thinks
somewhere
in those
blissful
innocent
years
of childhood
he must have
thought he
was forever

curiously
he didn’t
feel disappointed
when somehow
at some point
in the time
of his childhood
the realization
that he would
die someday
occurred
or was
revealed
to him

he must have
not completely
believed
he would die
and maybe
some of that
illusionary
thinking
stuck with him
because it still
hasn’t fully
dawned on him
that he is
going to die

bob boyd

the life of the party
in his unbridled youth
always loads of friends
happy days and happy nights
good times and good friends

now an old man
he’s a stranger in his life

the friends
the good times
are all gone
the party’s over

his friends moved on
most of them died
even his wife of 70 years

he’s all alone
and just living
to die

bob boyd

The old man shivers
he’s in his apartment
it’s winter
the temperature is below zero
he can’t afford the high cost of heat
he wears layers of clothes
he drinks hot coffee

it’s not enough
he still shivers
he’s still freezing
he’s all alone
with no one to help

he knows he’s close to freezing to death
he doesn’t care about living anymore

his breathing becomes shallow
his pulse becomes weak

he tries to light one last cigarette
but he’s lost his coordination
his reflexes too
his muscles have become stiff
he can’t light the match

he closes his eyes
takes a faltering final breath
his heart stops beating
and he dies

Bob Boyd

We thought we were political pundits.
We knew our political choice was right.
We knew we were like celebrity gods
above the ill-informed masses.
And we knew the left was best
from watching CNN and MSNBC.
We were glad to do candidate endorsements,
especially for some lucrative gigs.
We hadn’t expected the low information voters
to be tone deaf to our informed political choice
and choose to vote the other way.
We cannot live in a country that
has gone Fourth Reich.
So we are leaving America
and packing our bags
with our broken hearts
and busted egos.

Bob Boyd

How sweet it is
when they “eat their own.”

You can’t get enough of it.
It is so deliciously satisfying.

And it seems so righteously
just and heartwarming.

It makes one think
there is still some justice
in this politicized world.

Bob Boyd

On Tik Tok she advocated poisoning men after Trump won the presidential election.
She went quite crazy, totally brainwashed by fake MSM lies
that she lacked the brains or discernment to see through.
She even bought a ring you could keep poison in,
as if she were serious about her insaneness and might actually act on it.
She has terminal TDS, and she has lost her MSM poisoned mind.

Bob Boyd

1933: She drank all the Kool-Aid. She believed all the propaganda.
She was proud of her brand new Nazi guard uniform,
and she enjoyed tormenting the jews in the concentration camp.

1995: She drank all the Kool-Aid. She believed all the propaganda.
She was proud to be a cult member,
and she enjoyed pouring sarin gas into those subways in Japan.

2024: She drank all the Kool-Aid. She believed all the propaganda.
She was proud to be a Leftist,
and she cut off all her hair and shunned men when her party lost the election.

Of course, the Kool-Aid doesn’t always lead to this … but it has, and men drink it too.

Bob Boyd

I see the cat across the street
eyeing a squirrel curiously.

Is she thinking of killing him,
like a harmless fluttering bird,
or is she just wondering what
he is doing and nothing more?

Were the cat to try to catch
him, I think he’d be too fast
for her, especially up a tree.

I see the cat crouch and wag
her tail, and I know she’s about
to spring at the squirrel. The
squirrel wise to the cat’s plan,
stands up and makes a kuk kuk
sound and seems to taunt the
cat who growls and springs.

The squirrel too fast for the cat
speeds up a telephone post.
The raged cat follows seeming
too mad to cease the chase.

But when the squirrel leaps
on a telephone wire, the
cat too enraged to forgo the risk
tries to navigate the shaky wire
and keep chasing the squirrel.

The squirrel says kuk kuk again
turns on the wire adeptly and
swats the cat off balance, and
the cat flies off the wire.

The cat is airborne for a moment
until her body is smashed on
the concrete street and run over
by a garbage truck.

The squirrel looks at the dead
squashed cat and makes a
ku-u-ku sound as if celebrating
his enemy’s road killed demise.

Bob Boyd

He said like Chinese emperors his family were the descendants of dragons.
He said his family had all reincarnated from back then.
He told me more crazy stories that made no sense.
I knew sadly he’d lost all his marbles,
and his brain would never be right again.
But I hadn’t expected him to kill his mother and father.
and be on the run from the police
and kill himself at the end of a rope on an old oak tree
behind St Mary’s Catholic Church on Christ’s birthday in 1993.
Maybe killing himself on Christ’s birthday behind the church was his idea of repenting and seeking the mercy of Christ.
Whatever his reasons for taking his parents and his own life,
I think he was too far gone crazy to be accountable
and he must of had too many inner demons to commit such infamy.

Bob Boyd

when he lived in florida for many years
he liked those little florida lizards
they reminded him of chameleons
he saw on the backs of comic books
when he was a young boy

and you could mailorder one
for a reasonable price

he never got one of them
but he still wishes he did

he liked the way the little florida lizards
always did mini pushups
maybe it was a mating thing
he wondered in those
comic book chameleons
did the same thing
but it’s too late to find out

you can no longer find them
on the backs of comic books
and he doesn’t know if
those comic book chameleons
were real or fakes

bob boyd

they’d been nice quiet kids
fun and peaceful until
they moved to a bigger city
and they became thugs
the change was alarming
nice quiet kids gone so bad
merely from a change of cities
and troublemaking friends and
small time criminal influences
a little over a year later
both of them sent to prison
robbed and killed a man
nice quiet kids now felons
locked away forever

bob boyd

I’m a curiosity to my Siamese Fighting Fish.
At least he doesn’t want to fight me.
I wonder what he’s thinking.
I wonder if he has many, if any, thoughts.
Or if he’s a bit of a philosopher and
wonders if I’m some kind of a giant god
or an insignificant dolt who just feeds him.
Maybe he believes in reincarnation and
is sure someday he’ll be like me,
maybe feeding fish as well.
I’ll bet he doesn’t believe in hell.
Maybe when he’s resting in his stone hut
like a religious hermit, he’s meditating.
I wonder if he’s had a satori or two
or perhaps a samadhi Hindu-style.
Maybe a Christian mystical union
and he’s seen the Ruler of everything,
Or maybe his highs are merely as
simple as enjoying the food I feed him.

Bob Boyd

I see her looking at me
disdainfully.

I know her love for me
has drained out of her heart.

Just a year ago, she said
she’d never stop loving me.

Amazing how a little time
can change the course of love.

Now I don’t love her either;
I never really knew her.

It took time for her real self
to come out of her.

When it did, I couldn’t believe
all the dark things I saw.

She only wanted me for
the money I had inherited.

When the money ran out,
she had no more use for me.

I know she will leave me soon
to find someone with more money.

And I’m good with that, farewell
and don’t ever come back.

Bob Boyd

she never thought she’d get old
she had felt eternally youthful
and remarkably beautiful
until time began to erode
her youth and her looks
and fewer men noticed her

her mirror abandoned her
and make her look older
she tried botox treatments
and many surgical fixes
but her face and her body
still kept aging badly
the wrinkles and discomforts
kept increasing daily

but eventually she adapted
and finally aged gracefully

bob boyd

the fall leaves are leaping off the trees
maybe is their last hurrahs hurling into the air
a final gasp of freedom from being tied to trees
maybe the freedom for a few moments is worth
the suicidal leaps into the grounds and streets
maybe living a short but exciting life of glory
is worth that plunge to end seasonal bondage

bob boyd

he works in a factory
just like his father and his father’s father did.
he went to college, got a degree in English Lit,
couldn’t find a decent paying, prestigious job.
makes more operating a whining machine
that punches holes in metal incessantly.
dreams of becoming a famous writer,
writes books at night.
believes he has it in him to write a bestseller
that will be made into a blockbuster movie.
his books keep getting rejected by publishers
one editor wrote, “don’t quit your day job.”
he inhales the foul-smelling factory air,
suppresses the feelings of failure
and dreams of another life.
but feels trapped in the factory,
like his father and his father’s father did.
maybe factory work in his blood
and he can’t get it out.

bob boyd

He was waiting for God to turn off his lights, tired of living, aging had reduced him
to a pill-dependant pulp.

He had no love left in his life. His lovers had died or left him.

He had nothing to live for. He lost his zest for living.

Confined to a wheelchair in an uncaring nursing home, he prayed everyday for God to end his dreary, pain-ridden existence.

He’d lived eighty and nine years, been enough, seen enough.

Before he reached an agonizing ninety years, mercy arrived, and God turned off his lights.

At first his world went dark. Then it lit up with unconditional love. And he found eternal peace, unconfined and forever loved and free.

Bob Boyd

Taste with their feet
subsist on liquids only
have transparent wings
cold blooded species
need warmth to live
miniscule lifespans
live 15 to 29 days
I’m sad they don’t
live longer lives
as beautiful as
they are
the butterflies

Bob Boyd

You can’t trust the mainstream news anymore,
lies, misinformation and partisan biased,
brainwashing viewers, many are celebs.
It stuffs the brains of undiscerning viewers
with nonsensical and hateful untruths,
turns them into haters of whomever it demonizes
day in and day out ad nauseam.
The constant repetition of the lies
penetrate the minds of the believers
and turns them into left leaning shills.
It wasn’t that way when journalism was objective
and you could believe the mainstream news.

Bob Boyd