Free verse poetry, mostly fiction, some nonfiction
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Humans born deformed curiosities,
Camel Girl, Lobster Boy, Four Legged Woman.
Once cruelly exhibited as oddities in sideshows,
The only way for them to make a living.
Gawked at by curious throngs of spectators,
Teased and ridiculed by some,
Like making faces at monkeys in cages.
Why must some humans suffer such awful fates?
Bob Boyd
I see her attentions as frivolous.
They waste my time and never go anywhere.
Though she’s younger, she’s too old for me.
I can’t endure her insincerity anymore
and her unnerving, whimsical ways.
I’m too old for rainy day games
and fair weather love.
Bob Boyd
The moon pales in the face of her beauty
The sun beams when she appears in the morning
Birds sing at the sight of her
Flowers blossom when she walks by them
My heart bursts with love when I see her
But, alas, she never notices me.
Bob Boyd
A lady bug strolls across the top of my computer monitor.
I can’t tell if its pronouns are she/her or he/him.
Maybe it took gender studies in college, and it’s nonbinary.
Gnats flail in vain against my apartment window screens;
I imagine a few hot-headed ones are swearing.
A red-bellied woodpecker taps a tune on a nearby tree outside.
I think it’s an oldie, maybe Knock on Wood from 66 by Eddy Floyd.
The guppies in my aquarium swim happily going nowhere.
I think they’re hedonists living for today partying the night away.
The ceiling fan spins like a planet rotating in the cosmos;
I imagine an asteroid striking it and blasting it out of orbit.
In a reverie I find myself thinking of how in a perfect world
I would have been with the sweet looking, sweet sounding
woman who sang It’s Gonna Take a Lotta Love.
Bob Boyd
She draws near
my heart begins to clamor.
Oh God in heaven
why does she
affect me like this?
Bob Boyd
It’s Spring
The daisies bloom in fields
The bluebirds sing in trees
The streams murmur happily
The world is renewed
But my heart is in a desolate winter
because you are gone from me.
Bob Boyd
Dark clouds, inevitable in one’s life,
often related to disappointments.
Worst for me if because of a
disappointment with a woman
when dark clouds gather and
the rain falls like tears
from my eyes even though
I’m not crying on the outside.
Been through too many dark
clouds and even storms
in my life.
Maybe bad karma,
maybe random,
maybe dumb choices,
maybe bad luck.
But for me and for most
dark clouds eventually
disperse, the rain
evaporates in the healing,
rejuvenating rays
of another sunny day.
Tomorrow will be my sunny day.
Tonight’s my dark cloud.
Bob Boyd
Behold one of the darkest arts of
Government: Eminent Domain
Reminiscent of stolen Native American lands
Some cases underpaid for the seizures
Some cases of removals at gunpoint
How is it in what some politicians claim
is the greatest country in the world
we have a government perpetrating
intrusive, insensitive land grabs
And while I’m on this insidious topic,
Here’s what eminent means
“Well-known and respected, especially
for achievement in a particular field.”
I see nothing respectful
I see no achievement
I see only a particular field of stolen lands
watered with the tears of people
those lands were seized from
I see a disgraceful well-known
diabolical practice by a government
in cases not by the people but
against the people
I see broken hearts of families
who owned lands for generations
robbed regardless of forced
compensations
Eminent Domain, a
Goddamn shame.
Bob Boyd
Standing in line to buy guppies in Petsmart, saw a cute
little brown and white dog jumping in front of me.
Then saw something unusual,three legs instead of four.
didn’t matter to the sprightly canine, didn’t care he
was a three-legged dog.
Impressive, inspiring how that dog adapted to his disability.
A hit by a car caused the loss of one leg, didn’t need it,
never limited him. Three just as good.
Bob Boyd
Fortune, fame, or lack of,
ultimately the same; we all fade
into obscurity.
Bob Boyd
At first she was a beautiful Asian woman in a photo
living in an archipelago 8,000 miles away.
An alluring snapshot that spoke to my lonely heart,
suggesting a thousand enchanting things.
I wondered if this exotic woman would be with me.
For two years she waited from across the sea,
talking to me every night courtesy of Skype.
On Korean Air wings I flew to her, met her in Davao,
the connection complete, the romance official,
months of romantic bliss consummated in marriage.
Had I a soothsayer been, I would have seen
five years later after I brought her to Greensboro,
the photo and the romance would have faded
into an ill fated long distance love.
Bob Boyd
Knew Alaina when she was an eleventh grade high school cheerleader, wholesome girl, fluffy blonde hair, cornflower blue eyes, a perfect figure, father a doctor, on her way to a stellar future, maybe a doctor too.
Always had a crush on her, but not good enough, wrong side of town, ill bred, family with little money, lesser social class.
Enlisted in the military, four displaced years, unscrewed my life, scrambled my mind, but took college courses part time, improved myself, my diction, my writing, and my bearing, still thought of Alaina.
Returned to my hometown, changed, an outsider, curious about Alaina.
A lowlife named Laney said she’d become a whore.
I went crazy, punched him to the ground, jumped on him and wailed until friends pulled me off.
The sacrilege of what he said, a sin against the wonderful, beautiful Alaina.
Driving through a bad part of town, gasped when I saw her swaying back and forth on the street like a weed stirring in the wind, her looks gone, hard lines etched in her face, hair unkempt, clothes ragged, eyes spaced out, her drugged out, my heart broken.
Parked my car across the street from her wondering what to do, then a greasy man in an old pick up truck stopped; she talked to him, took his money, hopped in his truck, the man drove it into a nearby alley.
I knew then what Laney said was true, felt sick, almost threw up.
Drove home heavy hearted bemoaning what happened to Alaina, couldn’t sleep that night thinking what to do, if I could save her from the streets, decided to take action the next day.
Jumped in my car, drove to where I’d seen her; she wasn’t there. Looked for her, a long anxious week. No sign of her until I found her obit: Died of an Overdose.
Alaina, Alaina, what happened to you?
Bob Boyd
the touch of your hand
sends currents of bliss through me
nothing can compare
Bob Boyd
I often think of you when we’re apart
And how your love mended my broken heart.
I’ve never been with a woman like you
Without an equal, wonderful and true.
A remade complete man thanks to sweet you.
The day we met, like a miracle breakthrough.
I felt a heaven awaken in me
Thanks to you the angel who had the key
That unlocked my heart like never before
With a true love that will last evermore.
Bob Boyd
a slip of the mask
his true face firmly revealed
a gray from the stars
Bob Boyd
when I first saw you
astonished
speechless
I felt like I was
beholding a
bona fide
beautiful
angel
descended
from
heaven
years later when by chance
I saw you in an airport
we spoke and I learned
you were a mortal
but as beautiful as any angel
a military nurse you were
going to the war in Afghanistan
a student I was on the way to London
we promised to stay in touch
alas and tears a terrorist bomb
took you forever away from me
in that hot desert warzone
perhaps God needed another
angel in heaven
ah me
I dry
my eyes
thinking of
what might
have been
Bob Boyd
At seventy one, sadly love seems
To have drained out of your life.
Maybe like me with age-reduced testosterone
You have age-reduced estrogen.
Maybe unlike me, older than you,
That reduction has dimmed your ardor.
But if only you could see
How the sparks of a new romance
Would set your passion ablaze,
Feeling young and in love again.
I’m standing here enamored
Offering all that and more to you.
But like many ladies your age,
For whatever reasons, you’ve
Given up on romance.
O my tormented heart.
Bob Boyd
At first the marriage was fairy tale happy
Lovely you, fun, nice, pretty too
A good match for me, got along so well.
A new job at Hewlett Packard
New friends, soon more time away from me.
Coffee houses with girlfriends nearly every night;
Other nights visiting sisters.
At least you didn’t cheat on me, but
Me home lonely, increasingly unhappy,
Your socialization became an addiction,
My heart became increasingly lonely,
My mind began wishing I’d never married you.
A Country Western Song nailed it back then,
Isn’t It lonely Together was you and me,
Or at least me. You seemingly oblivious
And insensitively indifferent to the
heartaches you were causing me.
Every few months an argument
Your rarely home ways, my postnuptial woes.
You’d change for a few weeks then ….
Morph back into the social butterfly wife
And fly away again, home merely
Your launching pad.
The day I told you I was leaving,
Stunned, you couldn’t believe it;
You thought I’d put up with the loneliness
And unhappiness forever.
Pain outweighing pleasure time to leave,
Liberate myself from the pangs of constant desolation.
After I left, you drove all over the city looking for me
As if it wasn’t too late, but I knew if I went back with you,
I’d be lonely together again after a month or two
When you resumed your extroverted ways.
Bob Boyd
impermanent world
people dying everywhere
few wondering why
Bob Boyd
her beauty erased
once a Miss America
plastic surgery
Botox and
a multitude of
age defying
lotions and
useless potions
against age
desecrations
when embracing her
her husband
closes his eyes
and pretends
she’s a beauty again
she closes her eyes
and pretends
he’s handsome again
together 40 years
they know
each other’s game
and still love
each other
their aged
wrinkled bodies
and lost looks
no deterrent to
lasting true love.
Bob Boyd