Poems by Bob Boyd

At first, for many life
it’s optimistically great
few problems, if any
the future full of possibilities
death not even one of them
at least not for most

even though death is waiting
silently, menacingly,
for the opportune moment
to pounce upon them
seize their temporary existences

no matter how long they live
or what they accomplish
in their fragile lives
it’s all a losing proposition
death prevails in the end.

Bob Boyd

They’re the bane of bees, the Japanese Hornet
one can kill 40 European bees in a minute
30 can kill a colony of them in about 3 hours
they decapitate and dismember the bees
fly away with thoraxes, larvae and honey

but they cannot easily decimate
the intrepid, inventive Japanese bees
when a Japanese Hornet flies to the hive
of the Japanese bees, he spies a few bees
hovering around the outside of the hive

decoys, they lure the hornet into the hive
where the entire colony waits, still as death
until the hornet seizes one of the decoys
then the entire colony seizes the hornet

traps it inside a moving ball of them
beat their wings to increase the heat
to a torrid 115 F (45 C) and literally
bake the Japanese Hornet to death
inside the swarming ball of doom
the scout dead, the colony saved.

Bob Boyd

Went to a local pet store
part of a huge chain of stores across the US

to buy a betta fish
it was a sad sight to see

all the bettas in small plastic cups
not much bigger than a coffee cup

most were listless, a few
looked close to dying

it was as if they were in
mini plastic gulags

betta fish shouldn’t be kept
in small plastic cups

barely deeper than a few inches
it’s a sad sight to see

I bought a female betta fish
they’re not as popular as

the more beautiful males
that most people buy

but that is partly why I bought
a female betta

the other reason is they don’t
sell as well

thus, the females are kept
in those plastic gulags longer

and I suspect some are
never sold and die in them

to buy a betta fish is to liberate it
from what is akin to

a human having to live in the small
confines of a closet

it’s exhilarating to watch the betta
when it is put into a 5 gallon aquarium

and tastes the freedom of all the
open space

and swims around unimpeded by
its former mini plastic cell

exploring its new home
even inside the small cave ornament

bettas love those cave ornaments
like retreats for them

for me it’s was a high
seeing that fish freed

from the inhumane conditions
it was stuffed in at the pet store

as bettas are in pet stores
all over America

it’s a sad sight to see.

Bob Boyd

She was the first cat sent into space
sent there by the French
on October 18th, 1963
electrodes implanted in her skull
to monitor her neurological activity
during the space flight
Felicette spent 13 minutes in space
came down in the cone of a rocket
with a parachute attached
and survived the flight
sadly, tragically, for Fellicette
two months later she was
put to death
so her brain could be studied
I ask you, was that any way to treat the
first space cadet cat?

Bob Boyd

A woman’s beauty is like
a candle

that burns steady and bright in a
woman’s youth

and begins to burn out as she grows
older

until, sadly, it eventually flickers
one last time …

and goes out forever

but I wish it could last forever
and didn’t fade like flowers

maybe it blossoms again in the afterlife
maybe women are beautiful there forever

regardless of whether or not they
were beautiful on earth.

Bob Boyd

I’ve heard about benevolent spirits
– usually deceased loved ones –

that have intervened with warnings
or with consolations

in one’s mind
or via apparitions

for example,

“Don’t go there tonight!”

and there’s a mass shooting
killing many people that night

or,

“Ask the doctor to run the tests again.”

and what was going to be an operation
is cancelled because the original tests
were inaccurate

and,

“You need to leave that man now!
He’s going to harm you!”

she doesn’t heed the warning and
he almost strangles her to death

I’ve never experienced anything like that
though I’ve seen dead people in dreams

and I believe sometimes ghosts or spirits
act like guardians.

Bob Boyd

The older you grow the more of your
life begins to disappear

as if some events never happened

your memory grows dim about
many of these events in your life

like memories of when you were a child

when you grow even older, it might surprise
you how many of the events have faded

and disappeared completely

erased from your mind
as if they never happened.

Bob Boyd

She wondered if he’d love her when she
was old and no longer beautiful

sadly he was gone long
before she got old

he cheated on her
she left him

when she got old and
no longer beautiful

alone, she never found
a man to stay with her

she didn’t have the luck
to find the right one

but it no longer matter
she had no desire to

be with or please an
unpredictable man

she was content being
by herself and free

she had enough happiness
in her religion

her church friends
and her God.

Bob Boyd

Recently, a random raccoon inexplicably fell
through the roof of a package store

and got into the liqueur

he drank to extreme excess, one hell of a bender
broken liqueur bottles all over the floor –

10 or more

streams of the liqueur spread all about
the store a chaotic mess

the raccoon wasted

drunk as a skunk, he passed out
face planted on the bathroom floor

apparently he has a drinking problem
that only a …

come-to-jesus moment can cure.

Bob Boyd

In the back yard of a house,
a man hung himself to death
from a tree

sometime later, a young
married couple moved
into the house

not long after that,
the wife went missing
was never found

until ten years later
when some construction
was being done

in the back yard and
a body was found
missing its arms

the wife’s body
killed by the jealous
husband

after that, another
couple moved into
the house

and felt a ghost
touching their limbs
when in bed

and heard the ghost
whisper the words
am I dead?

I believe it’s a real
account, but real
or not real

it gives me
the chills.