Category: Poetry

This is why I have presently have squirrels playing in a band at the top of this blog.
I like the cute, the playful, and the impossibility of that.
This is why I have a Kangaroo bartending at the top of this poem.
Once I took a course in the Theatre of the Absurd. I liked that course, and I like absurd and surreal things and situations.
I find them a refreshing change from the things and situations of ordinary life.
I find them fascinating and sometimes close to mind blowing, like Dali’s melting clocks.
It could be that absurd and surreal things are a taste of an afterlife where anything and everything is possible, like a real Alice’s Wonderland.

Bob Boyd

I often wonder if love is ever after
Despite it seeming to end when lovers die.
Despite many wives and husbands finding new loves
when their husbands or wives pass away,
as if their loves were only temporary
and traded for other temporary loves.

I don’t blame those wives and husbands
for finding new loves.
I’d probably do the same.
It’s a hard road living life on your own
without someone to love, and if love is
only temporary, it doesn’t matter anyway.

Sure some stay the course married
or in love for the remainder of their days.
But what happens after death?
Is romantic love dissolved into
unconditional love for everyone?
Is there no romantic love after death?
My hope is romantic love is ever after,
and those who don’t find true or lasting
love in this temporary world find
true and lasting love in the afterlife.

Bob Boyd

Dead but not gone
Arisen from the grave
Never left the earth plane
Stuck or unable to
Some appear as only
Replaying images
No interactions
No sounds
No eye contact
No temperature changes
No touches
Others dynamic
Can do some
Or all of those things
Opinions vary on legitimacy
Real or unreal
Skeptics abound
Believers as well
Those who have
Seen restless souls
Have no doubts

Bob Boyd

When Anne Boleyn failed to provide King Henry VIII king of England an heir to the throne, he ordered her beheading.

She begged King Henry to have her head cut off with a sword instead of the nasty business of an axe which usually took a few blows to get the gruesome job done.

When Anne’s head was severed with one strike from the sword on May 19, 1536, the executioner held her head aloft to show the crowd the eyes and lips in the severed head moved for a few frightening seconds.

Now every year on May 19th, Anne’s ghost appears at Blickling Hall in Norfolk, England holding her head in her hand seated in a carriage drawn by a headless horseman and headless horses.

Shortly after that the headless horseman and the headless horses disappear, and Anne roams the building and the grounds holding her head in her hands until the sun rises.

Bob Boyd

After Mark got away with murdering his wife
and her body was never found, his wife’s
vengeful spirit arose from the dead.

First she went after her husband’s girlfriend
that he had cheated on her with.

While the girlfriend was driving down route 66
during rush hour, she manifested inside
the woman’s mind cursing her.

The woman got so terrified she lost
control of her car and the car plunged off
the highway into a deep rocky ravine.

The car and the woman nosedived to
the bottom of the ravine and blew up
in flames, her husband’s girlfriend dead.

Then she manifested in her husband’s
dreams as a demon and taunted him
with that demon image during the day.

A week later, her husband gone crazy,
he bought a Glock G26 and blew what
remained of his mind and his sanity
to bits.

Bob Boyd

He looks outside the hotel window
and sees his love driving away
after an awful teary breakup.
This time he knows she’s not
coming back, and he’ll never see
her again.

He was more right than he
realized. His girlfriend had a car
accident that night that took her
out of this world forever.

Now he sits in a room in that same hotel,
a hotel he stays in on business trips.

The day grows dark, and rain starts to fall
along with his tears as he remembers
the love he lost forever.

Bob Boyd

A rapist raped and murdered her at age 17, her life cut far too short.

But in the afterlife she became a powerful ghost, perhaps the power was a compensation for the horrible way she went out.

She psychically arranged events so that the man who raped and murdered her was caught and put to death for the many other young women he had raped and murdered.

Instead of going into the Light and basking in the bliss of the higher worlds, she decided to spend forever as an avenging ghost bringing justice for the many young women brutally taken out of this world.

Bob Boyd

Perhaps unknown to you,
you are on a tightrope in this life.
At every turn, at every step, at
every breath, you could fall off it –
as all eventually do.

Death by illness, a car
accident, a physical attack,
a stray bullet, a mass
shooting, a fall down a stairs,
an accidental poisoning, a
push into a subway or an
oncoming car, or something
else.

You feel like you’ll never lose
your balance, as most others do –
as if they’re here forever.

But one day you’ll fall off the
tightrope hopefully later rather
than sooner – dying too young,
as so many do.

Bob Boyd

Nguyet Le was a manager in an Arby’s restaurant.
One night in 2023 she went into the freezer
(Temperatures in Arby store freezers are usually
ten degrees below zero).

She got trapped in the freezer and pounded
on the freezer door until her hands were
bloodied, and she collapsed into the fetal position
on the floor and froze to death.

According to a lawsuit filed by her family, the freezer
door had been broken since 2022 and “employees
used a screwdriver to help open and close the door”
and “a box of oil to help keep the freezer door open.”

Horrible way to leave this world, and I hope the
family wins the lawsuit.

And I hope Nguyet Le is in a better place now free of
the worries and the sorrows of this uncertain world
where tragedies are always only a moment away.

And things that only happen to other people can
happen to me and you.

Bob Boyd

Hardworking men pulling rickshaws on dusty streets.
Rich Chinese being carried by 4 men on litters,
like small rooms with two long poles on the shoulders
of the men.
Mourners wearing all white in funeral processions.
Bodies left above ground for 40 days in graveyards before burial for proper mourning and preparation for the afterlife.
Camels walking in a line on the streets with bulky loads on their backs.
Street performers playing musical instruments.
Jugglers and contortionists exhibiting their talents.
Crowds of people watching.
Open air bazaars. Many people shopping.
Bird sellers selling birds.
Puppet shows and a sword fighter showing off his skills, two swords in the air, hands and swords as if flying.
A barber washing and cutting hair.
Street cobblers mending shoes.
People eating and washing clothes on sidewalks.
Street peddlers selling many goods.
Men with two sprinkler water buckets on their shoulders, sprinkling the streets to keep the dust down.
Legions of men walking by carrying heavy loads now carried by trucks.
Some pulling the heavy loads with ropes.
An ancient trolley car rolls by on rails.
Children working with adults hewing wood and logs.
Two men with two-man long saw sawing wooden planks.
Beautiful boats, cities and rivers.
How I would have liked to have seen it all in person in 1917.

Bob Boyd

There was a time when some people in some countries covered their mirrors at night for fear of a soul getting trapped in a mirror when the soul was wandering in a dream.

There was a time when some people in some countries covered their mirrors after someone died for fear the dead person’s soul could get trapped in a mirror.

I only know three things about mirrors:

If you break one, you might get seven years of bad luck.

If you truly are a vampire, you won’t see yourself in one.

If I look into a mirror, I always look much younger than I really am.

For the last thing, I know it’s an illusion because I look my true age in photos.

On a related note, and speaking of souls, I know, unlike with some primitive beliefs, when I’m photographed my soul won’t get trapped in a camera, fingers crossed. 🙂

Conspiracy theory or urban legend,
sightings of black-eyed children are
reported around the world.

Big black eyes, no whites, no irises,
they emanate a menacing feeling.

One, a little girl in a forest in Britain,
had an unnaturally bent neck and
a nonhuman, jerky running gait.

Sometimes they are alleged to
appear at your door asking to
come in.

Instinctively you feel if you let
them in, danger or death will follow.

No one knows what these black-eyed
children are really about.

No one knows if they are real or
just a conspiracy theory or an urban legend,

except those who might have
seen them.

Bob Boyd

Read an article on Daily Mail about married men spending thousands of dollars on women on OnlyFans.

One spent so much it sent his family into bankruptcy.

How insulting and heartbreaking for the wives.

I see it as the same as an infidelity.

And had I a girlfriend or a wife who spent
her time, let alone her money, on OnlyFans
looking at and talking to men,

she would not only lose my respect for her;

she would also lose her only real fan… me.

Bob Boyd

It has its perks:

No compromising.

No disappointing relationships
when the ecstasy of falling
in love has tapered off.

No walking on eggs.

No broken hearts.

No arguments and hurtful words.

No cheating or deceitful behavior.

Total peace of mind with no ripples in
your serenity.

Free and self determined to the max.

Worthwhile tradeoffs for a life without love
despite the occasional agonies,
and the longings.

That arise on the surface of your serenity
because of the inborn need
for a significant someone
to fill your life with affection and love.

Bob Boyd

Rich and tired of gold digging women.
Divorced one time too many.
Sick of the drama and the drain on his money,
the constant spending of frivolous things,
the alimony.

Sick of the superficial personalities, the plastic looks,
the high maintenance — he decided to
try someone new in a woman.

For 50,000 dollars he bought a robot wife
as real and interactive as the replicants in
the movie Blade Runner.

He didn’t have her programmed to be like a
mindless Stepford wife, a slave and not an equal.

He had her programmed to be a loving woman
and a perfect supportive intelligent companion
who would be there for him forever, who would
gently get him on course if ever he went off course
by treating her unfairly or badly.

As far as her not being a human woman, he
reasoned even human woman are not real either
when they leave you or when one of you die
and what was temporarily real has become
unreal.

He lived a happy life with his robot wife until he
died and she self-destructed.

Bob Boyd

Some ghosts are only imprints of events that
happened when they died.

No interactions.

No changes in their manifestations,
only like a movie scene
playing over and over and no more real
than the films.

They have passed on
from this earthly existence, but the
imprint remains.

Some ghosts make sounds, move objects,
speak, change room temperatures,
and touch you.

If this theory is true, it’s a mystery to me
why these disembodied beings remain
attached to the earth plane.

I have read they have unfinished business
and look after loved ones
like guardian ghosts.

The idea they don’t know how to get to the Light
and move on has been popularized
by Hollywood movies, as if they aren’t as smart
as other deceased people
or fear the Light for whatever reasons.

To the contrary, people who have had near death
experiences seem to pass from this earthly life
with ease.

But since they are not permanently
dead it’s hard to know if what they report is
completely accurate.

I see death being beyond ghosts and earthly
attachments.

I see death as the ultimate awakening
and when I go out,
I’ve no intention of remaining on
earth as a disembodied spirit.

And I welcome death
like a friend and not as a foe.

Bob Boyd

Beneath the skin of
The one we fondle today,
There is a skeleton,
Propping up the flesh.

Ikkyu

I find that poem disturbing
and far too realistic,

though it truly captures the
true nature of impermanence.

It disturbs me thinking that a
woman I was making love to
would one day be dead and
skeletal.

Bob Boyd

Originally called
Talking boards
Flat with letters
And numbers
Planchette for movable
Indicator
Hands on planchette
Questions asked
Strange or
Nonsense messages
Maybe true automatic writing
With spirits coming through
Supposedly from the dead
Stories of evil spirits
Coming through
Maybe untrue
But quite scary
Just the same
Some reports suggest
Possessions
Of more than
A few
True or untrue

Bob Boyd

Three beautiful Mongolian women, exotic,
mystical, dark eyes. Bodies swaying,
each playing a Mongolian instrument
called a Shnaz.

The women and their moves, mesmerizing.
The music they are playing a delight.
Were I a young man, I’d want to go
to Mongolia and meet a beautiful
Shnaz playing Mongolian woman tonight.

Bob Boyd

When I had cancer about 3 years ago,
I had to have my blood drawn by phlebotomists
every week for blood tests.

The phlebotomists were always females,
and they marveled over my veins, as if my
veins were visual pheromones that were
magnetically intoxicating to
phlebotomists of the female persuasion.

Had I only known that when I was younger,
I wouldn’t have wasted money on fancy
men’s colognes like Paco Rabanne.

I would have made it a point to hang out
where female phlebotomists did.

I would have worn short sleeve shirts,
or long sleeve shirts rolled up to my elbows,
to advantageously show off my alluring veins
as a surefire way of wooing them for their love.

Bob Boyd