Poems by Bob Boyd

i think a lot of characteristics in a person’s
behavior and personality are predetermined
like psychopaths
who
i learned yesterday cannot be changed
who
did not wake up one day and decide to be
that way
you might be wondering what this has
to do
with a woman who was uncommonly nice
she was a woman who always woke up
happy
this was not a choice
it was i believe predetermined in her
and unlike most people i have met
few seemed to have the characteristic
i saw her as a lucky anomaly and i
never understood how anyone could
ever wake up happy
just like i never understood whey some
people are fated to be born
psychopathic
and along with waking up happy
she was also uncommonly nice

bob boyd

some butterflies live up to ten weeks
but most die after only a few
i imagine to a butterfly a few weeks
or ten weeks could seem as long as
70 or 100 years to a human
that is if a butterfly is capable of
having any idea of its time on earth
but in regard to a butterfly’s lifespan
many don’t make it to the 3 to 10 weeks
butterflies have scores of predators
who hunt and devour them
that aside i wonder where butterflies
go when they die
i hope they don’t just die into
nothingness
imagine if there really is a heaven
and butterflies dance their
in celestial skies

bob boyd

Sad how beauty is so transient,
like lilies in nature ever fading.

Beauty blooms for only a blink
in the timeless span of eternity.

Sad how it is like a mere illusion,
that soon vanishes forever.

Bob Boyd

i never pine over a love that didn’t last
i don’t hold on to broken romances
just like one doesn’t hold onto broken things
but sometimes i wonder whatever happened
to my first serious girlfriend even though
she left me for for a more monied other
i wonder if she is still on the planet
or passed away some time ago
i suspect she probably had a good life
maybe married a doctor since she
planned on becoming a nurse
i hope she had a decent life without
any horrors that happen to so many

bob boyd

the leaves that bud
crinkle and fall
not unlike humans
who also crinkle
and fall

but unlike leaves
we also stiffen and
have a longer season
to live

and maybe like leaves
that are reborn
perhaps we are too

bob boyd

leafy gods and goddesses
that die and are reborn
with the seasons
I can see how past
pagans and maybe
present pagans could
believe in such deities
who like the plants and
the crops die and are
reborn in the spring
I’m not a pagan but
I can see the appeal
and like the imagery

bob boyd

Beyond self consciousness 
Higher consciousness
Beyond transitory world 
Ecstasy and serenity 
Beyond conception
Hail Transcendence! 
Doorway to Eternity.

Bob Boyd

confused by conflicting thoughts 
and fears, her mind iffy stood him up, 
didn’t answer his calls

rejected nice guy perfect man for her 
countless things in common

two months later her mind and 
emotions unconflicted, fears gone 
realized she made a mistake, 
lost a good, kind man
called him to apologize and 
accept a date with him.

too late, chances gone, good guy lost
he found the right unconfused 
woman and had no time for her 
after her rejections 
and confused nonsense. 
It seems I’ve heard this story before.

Bob Boyd

At 
first
couldn’t 
get 
enough 
of 
each 
other.

That lasted 
a loving 
six months
until the 
ardor began 
to wane.

Little things I 
did bothered you
and versa vice 
for me too.

Because we acted like 
adults we’re still together
through the hard times 
through the lasting times. 

Bob Boyd

Proud honkers, wings flapping, 
Beaks bobbing, surround us
Delicious crumbs of bread
I decorate the ground with
Ravenous bird mob vying for manna
Chorus of wings beating above me
Air vibrating magically 
More regal Canadian Geese
Landing on makeshift air strip
Bread crumbed ground
Like San Fran International 
Suddenly something surprising
Never happened before
An urgent avian beak 
Tugging at my pant leg
Saying me, me, me
My turn for some bread. 

Bob Boyd