Poems by Bob Boyd

It amazes me how some people
seem to be born more mature than others
and wise beyond their young years
even when they are still children
And they know exactly what they want to be
that they achieve when they grow older,
the kid that says he or she wants to be a doctor
and achieves that goal in his or her life
is one of many amazing examples.
I lacked their wisdom and their direction
was misdirected and a late bloomer
didn’t find my way until age fifty.
And wish I could have been like them.

Bob Boyd

He remembered when she was young
and beautiful forever,
the most beautiful woman
he’d ever seen.

He recalled when he got up the nerve
to finally ask her out on a date
and feared because she was so beautiful
she’d turn him down or wonder
what made him think he was worthy of her.

As expected, she turned him down
and crushed his dreams of being with her
and treating her as well as he could.

Things got worse when she accepted a date
from a guy he knew was no good
and treated women like shit.

Years later when she’d been through
six bad boy guys and was old,
no longer beautiful and alone,
and her beauty no longer
clouded his rational mind,
he realized he was always
too nice a guy instead of
the bad boys she preferred,
and he knew a relationship with her
would never have worked out.

Bob Boyd

Looking out my apartment window,
I see most of the tree leaves
have turned a crinkly brown,
died and been blown off the trees.

But some leaves refused to surrender
to the cold winter purges
and remain a lively green on the trees
like resistant rebels of nature.

I ponder these leaves clinging to life
and wonder how they survived
the winter purges that killed so many.

I think maybe the trees they lived on
aided them in their survival
somehow protecting them from
the yearly seasonal slaughter
of all the fallen dead leaves.

Bob Boyd

He was a stellar student in high school.
He had a bright future,
a rising star, everyone said.
He became the Class Valedictorian,
straight A’s all the way.

He went to a prestigious university,
aced all his studies in his
freshman and sophomore years.

But became radicalized
in his junior year and joined
an anti-American left wing group.

Tried to bomb a police station,
got caught and shot and
mortally wounded.

Died in the ambulance
on the way to the ER,
a rising star burned out
and dead
in the dark night
of his misguided,
radicalized life.

Bob Boyd

At first their marriage was
like something out of
a fairy tale.

Until she got bored
a few years later
and began to spend
more time with her
girlfriends then him.

And he began to get
loney and disillusioned
and started going out
with his friends more
and out of sorrow,
loneliness and
drunkenness
he cheated on her.

The marriage fell apart
and he left her.

Surprisingly she wanted
him back again.
But it was too late.
For he knew she
would change for awhile
but go back to her
same old behaviors,
and he was done
with that forever.

Bob Boyd

He never suffered fools
He had no time
or patience
for whiners and
obstructors.

He wasn’t a feeder
of trolls or
an accommodator
of foolish nonsense.

He shut it all down
instead of entertaining it
with a Zen indifference
to all the whining and
the nonsense of all
those people
who just got in the way
of making the world better.

Bob Boyd

Many have prophesied the end
of the world.
Whether the would be soothsayers
were deluded or a liars,
The results have always been the same.

The sun still rises in the morning sky.
The moon still comes out at night.
The stars still grace the dark nights.
The world and other planets still spin.

So far, millions of years later,
the only predictable thing that keeps ending
is the lives of the false prophets
that keep predicting the end of the world.

Bob Boyd

He was fire sent
born in fury
born to cause trouble

He fulfilled his destiny
started chaos
all over the known world

Millions and millions
died in the flames of his fury

and none knew who he was
or that he was fire sent

Bob Boyd

He claimed to know
the secrets of God’s Realm,
but never told them to me

Said he attained the
highest level of gnosis
which was a mystery to me

He said he’d become
God in flesh,
which I didn’t believe

Sad though it was
I wasn’t surprised when
he got put into a psychiatric hospital
and never got out

Bob Boyd

The world has been full of wars,
a history of battles and slaughters,
which makes me wonder why
the human race seems to have
a predilection for wholesale
violence and hostilities.

Even some of the religious
washed their unholy hands
in the bleeding blood of
many women and men
during the witch hunts
and the inquisitions.

Even in the present,
wars still proliferate.
And the world always
seems on the brink of
another war somewhere
on the ever troubled planet.

One would think with all
the years humans have
existed, we’d be beyond
the wholesale violence
and unending hostilities.

Maybe one day a new day
will dawn and the yearned
for peace upon the planet
will finally arrive, and humans
can finally put down the swords,
the guns, and the nukes
and turn them all metaphorically
into the Biblical plowshares.

Bob Boyd

Many have prophesied the end
of the world.
Whether the would be soothsayers
were deluded or liars,
The results have always been the same.

The sun still rises in the morning sky.
The moon still comes out at night.
The stars still grace the dark nights.
The world and other planets still spin.

So far, millions of years later,
the only predictable thing that keeps ending
is the lives of the false prophets
that keep predicting the end of the world.

Bob Boyd

Norman loved his dog
more than a wife.
In five years
his first wife
left him for another,
and he left a nagging
second wife.
But he and his dog
remained together.
A better friend
he never had
he always said.
So when two
teenage delinquents
shot his dog to death,
Norman took it
as personal as if
the delinquents shot
a human friend.
Norman went nuts
bought a shotgun
hunted the teens down
and shot them
both to death.
Now he sits in jail
and says he
doesn’t regret
his revengeful kills
that he did
for the love of a dog.

Bob Boyd

Her husband died twenty years ago.
She’s never gotten over her grief.
She is seventy now and alone.
They never had any children.
She believes his spirit is with her
and watches over in the afterlife.
She has imaginary conversations
with him in her mind everyday.
Some people might think
the loss made her delusional,
but I think she’s probably right
in believing her husband still
watches over her and hears
everything she says to him.

Bob Boyd

He fell for her devious ways.
She just wanted his money.
Blinded by her finagling charms,
he thought she loved him
for the decent man he was.
His decency meant nothing
in her dollar sign eyes.
He was a mark and nothing
more than an ATM machine
that she could withdraw
from for all of her life.

Bob Boyd

He spoke his truth about the military and got fired for it.
He wrote a book about what his truth was,
Pointing out the problems with the military that weakened it
and got a better government job correcting all those problems.

Bob Boyd

He loved his dog,
but of course
he loved his
wife more.

A few years
later his wife
no longer loved him
and left him for
another man.

His dog remained
faithful and stayed
with him until
his dog died.

Sometimes a dog
is better
more loving,
more truthful,
more faithful
than a spouse.

Bob Boyd

Some call him a common man.
He’s more than that.
He builds the cities.
He repairs the cars and trucks.
He labors in the factories.
He works on the farms.
He does all the jobs
the rich don’t have to do.
He’s a patriot.
He’s not protesting
or hating his country.
He serves in the military
often given his life
for his beloved country.
He’s the nuts and the bolts
of all countries in the world
putting everything together
maintaining and repairing
and keeping it all
clean and in good
operational condition.
He’s the soul and
the heart of his country
We’d be nowhere without
the everyday man.
Hail to him and
everyday men everywhere.

Bob Boyd

Some women
ridiculed her
because she
chose to be
a traditional wife
staying home
cooking meals
having kids
attending church
loving her family

The women who
ridiculed her
had no husbands
worked insane
career hours
thought they
were superior
to her being
just a stay at
home wife
thought she
sold out to
being only a
wife and doing
what she wanted
in life

Maybe what
she did in
being just a
wife raising
kids right
was more
important
in this life
than trying to
be more and
buy more
and having
less time to
raise kids
right.

Bob Boyd

people bragging about things
that used to be embarrassments
that they used to be ashamed of

people awarded with some fame
for classless and indecent acts
few awarded with some fame
for noble and gracious acts

in this ever spinning world
many are out of orbit with
what used to be decency

bob boyd

happy to hang up my hat
on this dying life that is mine
at this temporary moment
with the expiring breaths
and the failing heart beats
will recap in a new world
of afterlife light and love
adios to impermanence
hello to permanent eternity

bob boyd