Poems by Bob Boyd

Days and nights
Sun and moon
Cloudy weather
Sunny weather
Cold weather
Hot weather
People born
People dying
Where they
Came from
Where they’ll
Go regardless
Of claims
Regardless
Of those
Who think
They know
Still a mystery

Bob Boyd

When a young man, he always wore
conservative, drab clothes.
Wearing clothes too colorful was
considered a taboo in his culture.
He felt compelled to conform to
the fashion constraints of his day,
not wanting to stand out too much
or face ridicule.
When he reached seventy odd years
of life, he broke free of the fashion
constraints of his culture.
Like people of many other cultures in
the world, he began wearing more
colorful clothes and felt better, freer.
People from other cultures even
complimented him on his new fashion
choices, as if he were a kindred soul
in a more liberated, colorful,
celebration of fashion and of life.

Bob Boyd

I’ve often wondered how many people
who thought bad things only happened
to other people are in their graves.

I’ve often wondered if because of that
misguided belief, they were not as
aware as they should have been and
strayed into deadly situations oblivious
to the dangers they could have avoided.

God knows, I’ve done that a few times
when I believed bad things only
happened to other people in my less
aware days when by luck I didn’t end
up dead.

And when nothing bad has ever
happened to you, like you’ve seen on
the news, it is so hard to realize you
could be one of those people.

It seems inconceivable that those
bad things could ever happen to
you until they do.

And, of course, even if you are fully
aware that bad things can happen
to you and you take every precaution
to avoid being a victim someday,
there’s no guarantee your vigilance will
keep you one hundred percent safe.

It’s as if some of us are tragically fated
to have those bad things happen to us
that only happened to other people
no matter what we do or don’t do.

Bob Boyd

I’ve often read about people who
commit suicide by jumping off
tall buildings onto the hard pavement
in the streets below.
It’s hard for me to understand how
they could get up the nerve to take
those deadly leaps.
Just the harrowing thought of
standing on the edge a tall
building and looking at the
streets below is scary to me.
Even seeing a movie scene of
someone standing of the edge
of a tall build is unnerving.
Hitting an air pocket in a plane
flight high above the earth is
scary enough for me.
Were I suicidal, I wouldn’t have
the nerve to do myself in by
leaping off a tall building.
I’d opt for something less terrifying,
perhaps like overdosing on aspirins
or even hanging myself to death.
So sad that many people in this world
come to such a place in their lives
that they are driven to jump off
high buildings.
I cannot imagine the horror as
they begin to fall to the ground.
I cannot imagine the anguish they
must have had in their hearts to
make such a life ending decision.

Bob Boyd

He knew when he saw her beautiful body he wanted
to be with her.
Her pretty face was an attraction too.
Her mind was inconsequential to him.
In his mind, her thoughts could never compare with
her perfect sexist of all bodies.
He fell in love with her, and she fell in love with him.
But after a few years of marriage, her beautiful body,
though still beautiful, no longer captivated him.
They had become so incompatible that their brains were
as if on different frequencies discordant to each
other.
He left her for a woman with an average body and average
looks but with a beautiful mind more compatible with his.
Oh how he enjoyed talking with her for hours and hours.
Eventually they married, and he had a lovely wife and a happy
life.

Bob Boyd

A woman went missing for 40 years.
Miraculously, she was still alive.
But when the police found her.
She said she was missing because
she wanted to be missing.
I kind of admire people who choose
to disappear themselves.
For perhaps strange reasons
not clear to me, I like the thought
of taking on a new identity, and
starting a new life.
Sort of like a reset with a fresh
existence and new experiences.
Maybe a chance to carve out a
better life with better outcomes.
Maybe a chance for a more
adventurous life, an escape
from a lackluster boring one.
Perhaps to get away from a
family where trouble always
arises with relatives who seem
to thrive on chaos when you
just want to live in peace.
In the case of the woman who
vanished for 40 years,
I wouldn’t be surprised if she
disappeared to get away from
a controlling boyfriend she
feared would never let her go
and that might have killed her.

Bob Boyd

Watching a 50s movie
Remembering when bodies
Weren’t pumped up with
Steroids
Injected with silicone
Some bodies looking
Too cartoonish
Some bodies looking
Too freakish
How I miss those days
Back in the 50s
When bodies looked
more natural
I’ll probably miss those
Days even more
If I’m alive when
Bodies become
Transhuman
Part human and part
Machine

Bob Boyd

In your beautiful eyes I see
what would be a lucky man’s
destiny, what would be
a love greater than any
love ever, what would be a
more wondrous love than
any of the wonders in the
world, what would be a
blessing from the heavens if
I could be with you for a lifetime
or even for a day.

Bob Boyd

Like the Dance of Shiva that is alleged to end
and recreate the universe in Hindu mythology,
I believe the universe has dissolved and
recreated in the undeterminable past.

I see that akin to the dissolution and recreation
of flowers and leaves in winter and in spring.

Imagine if civilizations like others, or far more
advanced, existed in the cosmos and then
one day, poof!, they were gone, untraceable and
obliterated forever.

Imagine if the galaxies, the planets and the stars
one day dissolved into nothingness and were
recreated over and over.

To speculate further, I think there’s a possibility
such mysteries will be revealed to us when we
die.

Of course, I could be wrong about these things,
but I find it fascinating pondering such mysterious
matters.

Bob Boyd

An ex high school principal and a widow, she was lonely
until an attractive 32-year-old man came into her life.
She was uncommonly pretty for a woman her age, so
one could see how it was plausible a younger man
would be attracted to her.
She said the young man gave her the happiness she
hadn’t had in a long time.
They wed and seemed in nuptial bliss and had a
perfect marriage despite the age differences.
Then one day her young husband went on a business
trip and disappeared, only his car was found.
As the police unraveled the mystery, they found the
young husband’s dead body buried in the elderly
women’s back yard.
And the new widow was charged with murder.
Before her trial and a certain prison sentence, her
son came forth with a confession.
He had overheard his mother’s young husband tell
a friend in a phone conversation that he was about
to scam the son’s mother out of all her money.
The son confronted the scoundrel ending in the son
smashing the scammer in the head with a shovel
and killing him instantly.
He confessed his crime to the police resulting to his
mother being cleared of any wrongdoing.
But nonetheless enormous damage was done.
The mother deceived and brokenhearted over her
son’s imprisonment and her chance at true love
forsaken.

Bob Boyd