Poems by Bob Boyd

A summer day at the Stoneham zoo.
You were a kid. I was a kid too.
We were both with our parents and
too young for romance and love.
But oh that passing look of interest
you blessed me with that day.
Though I was too young for love,
it stirred something in my heart.
I think for a moment I impossibly
wanted to get to know you.
I wasn’t even thinking of anything
like a hug or a kiss.
There was just something about
the way you looked and how
sweet you looked when you
glanced at me.
Moments like that, even far back
in my long life, make me wonder
about what might have been,
what opportunities for the right
one might have been missed.

Bob Boyd

I had to keep reminding myself
that you were too young for me.
You were in your twenties.
I was in my seventies.
You were adorable and probably
still are.
You had the sweetest voice I’d
ever heard and probably still do.
You were incredibly funny and
probably still are.
And you drove me nearly crazy
when you flirted with me.
I often had to use all my will
power to stop thinking about you.
And oh how I imagined how fun it
would have been being with you.
But you were in your twenties
and I was in my seventies.

Bob Boyd

A man drunk stands in the middle of
a street, his pants down to his feet.
He starts jumping up and down trying
to get his pants to levitate to his waist.
Finally he stops jumping and pulls
up his pants.
Next his mind goes somewhere known
only to him.
He starts shouting like a crazy man at
no one in particular.
After a few boisterous shouts, he
picks up a bottle of whiskey from
the ground, takes a swig, and stumbles
away.
So sad some people who were once
innocent children, who seemed to have
immense possibilities, succumb to fates like
that as they grow older.
Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, they
were fated to end up that way for unfathomable
reasons.

Bob Boyd

Cicadas singing their hearts out
in trees.
They must be male vocalists
singing love songs to make
female cicadas swoon.
Were I a young swain instead of
an old relic being beckoned
by the grave,
I’d love to be able to sing songs
like the cicadas sing to make
females swoon.

Bob Boyd

A city or a town in England named
Leigh, a sad sight to see.
Not unlike some cities here in the US,
old buildings abandoned, trash in the
streets.
I’m sure there were better areas in
Leigh, just like cities here.
But what a shame to see parts of
once beautiful cities gone to shit in
the US and in the UK.

Bob Boyd

Darkness drops, the forest goes silent.
He sees the moon is full, his pulse quickens.
He wants to run out of the forest full speed.
But as if frozen, he cannot move.
The chilling howl confirms his fears.
Before he’s ripped to shreds.

Bob Boyd

He jumps into the lion enclosure.
He yells and assumes a fighting stance.
A lion answers his foolhardy challenge.
It roars and slices his arms with its claws.
Miraculously he lives, his life spared.
Zookeepers rescue him before he’s torn apart.

Bob Boyd

The day is downcast, her heart is broken.
The man she pinned her hopes on left.
He’s off to fight a foreign war faraway.
She feels certain he will die there.
Months later she is proven right.
His corpse comes home in a body bag.

Bob Boyd

She was once young and quite beautiful.
Her looks gave her many advantages.
She had six marriages to unsatisfactory men.
She never had any offspring to enrich her life.
But she used to have pedigree dogs.
Her luck and her looks abandoned her.
Fate and age robbed her of them.
All the men who desired her ignored her.
She ran out of money and opportunities.
Her plight drove her a little crazy.
Now she mumbles meaningless words.
She’s homeless and begs for money.
And when she regains a little sanity,
She lives in her memories of better days.

Bob Boyd

A guy in England takes videos in
the streets.
Migrants, old people, young people
try to attack him.
Though he handily defended himself,
the attacks got so bad that now he
has a body guard with him.
The attacks still continue, but
fewer than before.
Those who try to attack him get their
asses kicked.
The odd thing about all this is his
camera sets them off.
They should be grateful he’s shooting
harmless videos instead of deadly bullets.

Bob Boyd