Poems by Bob Boyd

At Saint Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, Canada
Brother Andre, a Canadian Saint is entombed.

Humble doorkeeper, a brother not a priest
least likely to be used by God, perhaps
the last being first, became a miracle worker
healed ailing supplicants from all over the world,
the power of his supercharged prayers and
unceasing devotion to Saint Joseph.

Never took credit for healing 10,000 or more
so humble, so devout, so saintly was he.

When he died, a million people streamed past his coffin
in reverence to this humble, God-blessed healing saint.
His mortal remains lie in the coffin at the back of the oratory in a sacred room, a powerful shrine where crutches of many healed pilgrims adorn the walls.

If you go there and visit his tomb, do not be surprised
if you feel palpable, saintly energy that will renew you
and replenish your faith. This I write from experience.

Bob Boyd

I saved a ladybug’s life today
It fell in my fish tank or maybe
It wanted to end it all. It thrashed
In the water desperately. Had my
Hearing been better, I probably
Would have heard ladybug
Cries for help.

I could have looked the
Other way and let the ladybug
Drown and become waterlogged
Fish food. But a nobler cause
Guided my actions. I couldn’t
Bear to let that little ladybug
Suffer a moment longer and die.

So with a piece of paper
Like a life raft for drowning
Souls at sea, I eased the
Gasping ladybug onto
The paper. When I got the
Ladybug to shore aka a
Ledge on a table, I swear
Inside my head
I heard a tiny ladybug
Thank you.

Bob Boyd

My parents always said why can’t you be like Arthur Koski
As if he was some kind of sainted kid above wrongdoing
And I was some kind of ne’er-do-well loser who always screwed up
I hated that ideal Arthur Koski and his supposedly perfect ways
When I dropped out of high school and Koski made the honor roll
My parents threw that in my face and kicked me out of the house
Years later that perfect Arthur Koski became a Catholic priest
I became a grunt working whatever construction jobs I could get
No doubt my parents would have said why couldn’t I have been as pious and as educated as Arthur Koski
I lived a common life with a good woman, made enough money to get by, and never got in trouble
Arthur Koski, on the other hand, was arrested for molesting altar boys
If I were less a man and vengeful, I would have said to my parents why couldn’t Arthur Koski have been like me?

Bob Boyd

Mary Lindsay went to church
And came home saved
Mary Lindsay went to a bar
And came home drunk
Mary Lindsay went to church again
And came home saved again
Mary Lindsay went back to the bar again
And came home drunk again
I’m not throwing any stones
At least she was trying.

Bob Boyd

This is a simple poem and I’ve created many fictional characters in poems, but despite the poem’s simplicity, Mary Lindsay is my favorite character.

I love her because I feel she had a difficult childhood that caused her severe harm, like being sexually abused as a child. And that dark chapter in her young life, and probably other horrible things, led her to alcoholism.

I love her because she’s not giving up despite what she’s been through, and I feel she will prevail in the end and have a great life despite the disadvantages she faced.

Sai tread the path of darkness after he gave up on God
when God and his saints of impossible causes refused to answer his urgent prayers to heal his beautiful Rozina, and they let her die of leukemia at the tender age of 23.

After that Sai went somewhat mad and became diabolical.
He studied and learned many dark arts and sorceries.
He conjured up familiars to do his every evil bidding,
blasphemed God and cursed his saints every night.

He built an altar to Satan, prayed to him daily and begged Satan to give him immortality like the fires of hell and to make him a vessel of unlimited diabolical powers.
Satan told Sai he’d make him an immortal, evil incarnation, and he brought him to hell to start the transformation

Sai saw unspeakable terrors and unimagined horrors there:
screaming soulless sinners, menacing red-eyed demons, burning flesh, torn apart extremities, endless torments, eternal tortures, stenches of rancid, rotting corpses, and no way out, denizens forever doomed and damned.

But the most terrifying part of his time in hell came when Sai learned Satan had trapped him there forever.

Bob Boyd

The meditation teacher told us if we took
the new course, we’d have Siddhis,
paranormal abilities,
that would enable us to fly
and advance us closer to
cosmic consciousness.

And it sounded like we’d be able
to fly like birds in the sky.

But the thousands of dollars
cost for the course was way
too steep for me.

And decades later I saw a video
of those who had the flying Siddhis
power

hopping like frogs on mattresses instead of
flying like birds in the sky.

Bob Boyd

Just seventeen
and cancer
has taken her
away

To me this is like
a devil’s play

That took her
life away

She was far
too young to die

And never live
to see another
blue sky

And I have to
wonder why

So many young
people
have to die

Before they’ve
had a chance
to really live.

Bob Boyd

Saw on Timcast
News about
Women raising
Reborn baby dolls
One spent
$2,000 on 8
Of them
She said
She treated as
Her kids

Tim of Timcast
Was freaked
Out by this
And felt the
Woman should
Be shamed

Me I don’t care
About this
Woman having
8 baby dolls
And if these
Dolls make
Her happy

I’m totally
Okay with it
She’s not
Hurting anyone
And there
Are far
Worse things
People do

Once I saw
A documentary
About men
Who had
Life size
Anatomically
Correct
Female dolls
They said
Were their
Girlfriends
One said
His doll
Was his wife

Unlike what
I expected
These men
Seemed Like
Nice Guys
Despite their
Unnatural
Obsession
With the
Fake women
Dolls and
They truly
Treated them
Like bona fide
Girlfriends
That they
Cared about
And Loved

And if those
Life size
Female dolls
Make them
Happy and
Less lonely

I’m totally
Okay with it
There are
Far worse
Things
People do

Bob Boyd

In 1931 a crooner named Val Rosing was singing about a woman driving him crazy.
Seems things haven’t changed much in 2025
with men and women still being driven crazy
when heart-wounded by Cupid or love-bitten by the love bug.

I was almost that way six full moons ago when a
buxom, pretty woman in her fifties, a goddess in
the chips and crackers aisle, at Lawndale Ave Harris Teeter grocery store for a moment batted her big blue eyes at me.

I wistfully thought to myself today my stars must be
aligned so perfectly that this is my decades awaited
one and only soulmate here for me.

In that moment I spied Cupid drawing back his bow
and aiming it at my hopeful, beating heart.
I sensed the invisible love bug about to bite me,
and I knew destiny and the fates had surely brought the
goddess in the chips and crackers aisle to me
until the goddess batted her eyes at another man
and I thought to myself, already she’s cheating on me?

Then I thought that’s it we’re through. I wheeled my noisy grocery cart, clickity-clack, around and headed toward the ice cream aisle.
I loaded up the cart with enough Haagen-Daz Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream to gorge myself on for weeks.

I drove home and home and devoured a truck-load of
the Haagan-Daz and cured myself of the grocery store
amor craziness because it’s hard to be unhappy or broken hearted when eating the delicious, the magnificent, the incomparable Haagan-Daz Chocolate Cookie Dough ice cream, which for me is like an ultimate panacea that can heal almost any affliction and maybe even raise the dead.

Bob Boyd

NDEers who have died and seen The Source
report it’s unconditional love beyond words beyond imagination,
and that this world pales by comparison, lackluster, less real and dreamlike.

They say when they’re there dead temporarily that it’s their true home
where they want to stay forever.

When they’re told they have to return to this temporary life
because it’s not their time to die permanently,
they’re not told to go to church, temple or mosque more.
They’re not told to sing hymns, pray, meditate, or contemplate.

They’re simply told to be more loving ….

To me that revelation is as fitting as a hand to a glove
because of the saying God is Love.

Bob Boyd