Poems by Bob Boyd

If you’re a man who prefers an AI girlfriend over
a woman,

or a woman who prefers an AI boyfriend
over a man, I’m good with that.

And I can see the benefits you derive from the
AI girlfriend or boyfriend:

Totally supportive
Won’t leave you
Won’t cheat on you
Won’t verbally or
physically abuse you
Won’t play games with you
Won’t break your heart
No Drama
No nitpicking
No unkind words
And always there for you

Besides, despite being a romantic at heart,
I’ve come to believe romantic love is

purely for procreation, like it is for all the
other species.

And romantic love eventually ends, either
through a break up or the death of your lover.

That being the case, to me it doesn’t matter if
an man or a woman chooses an AI or even

a life size doll as his or her lover instead of a
human woman or man, except he or she would

have to have one hell of an imagination to
carry on a long and loving relationship with an

inanimate doll. But at least there’d be no drama.

Bob Boyd

I see a blue jay harassing a bald eagle,
flying at him over and over.

I think to myself that blue jay, miniscule
compared to the eagle,

is going to die when the eagle catches
him and rips him apart.

But all the eagle does is screech, spread
his wings threateningly, and duck.

He never comes even close to catching
the blue jay.

Instead, he just flies away.

Bob Boyd

Lanmaoa asiatica, a mushroom
found in pine forests in
southwestern china and
the northern Philippines
if eaten cooked, a tasty delight
if eaten raw, a hallucinogen
the effects lasting for several days
vivid visions of tiny people
all over one’s surroundings
walking through doors
crawling on furniture and more
are these tiny people hallucinations,
or does the mushroom act like a portal
to a miniature dimension with mini people?

Bob Boyd

There are bearded vultures who wait until the other
vultures eat all the flesh and organs off a carcass,

so they can feast on the bones.

They must have jaws of steel and digestive systems
that could probably digest even pieces of steel.

And they do look like they have beards.

Bob Boyd

He spent years wishing he had a wife. After he got one,
he spent years wishing he didn’t have her.

But he stayed with her because he feared being alone
by himself.

He believed in the saying better the devil you know
than the devil you don’t.

His wife felt the same way, and when he disappeared,
she wasn’t worried or distressed,

but felt at least he was useful as compost when
she watered her newly grown plants.

Bob Boyd

The wandering albatross has a wingspan
of on average 10.5 feet.

They can glide through the air for hours
without flapping their wings.

They soar dynamically in the air,
sometimes flying as far as 50,000 miles.

They can fly 500 miles a day with
speeds of up to 80 miles per hour.

They can spend a year or more at
sea without ever landing on land.

They touch down in the water briefly
for food and briefly to avoid shark attacks.

It is believed that when they fly they
also sleep, but nobody knows for sure.

In a way, besting many humans, they
also mate for life.

I would like to feel what feels like being
an albatross in flight.

Bob Boyd

He ponders how everything fades away,
time, material things, a woman’s looks.

Then he wonders if rocks are the
exception, if they erode into nothingness,
and it seems the planet will have to die
before that can happen.

And since rocks don’t appear to have
parents, or consummate, he wonders
how rocks are born.

He learns they come into being by
something called a rock cycle, and
to his amazement, they can live
millions to billions of years.

Then he wonders if rocks have any
sentience, and he learns about
The Panpsychic World, the belief
that consciousness is present in
all things akin to what the Mahayana
Buddhists call the Buddha nature
in all things, sentient and insentient.

He doesn’t know if that theory is
possible, and, right or wrong,
he doesn’t know if reincarnation is valid,
but imagine if reincarnation were true
and all things, sentient and insentient,
would eventually reach an afterlife state
of eternal bliss consciousness.

He likes the thought of that, the
equality and the promise of it.

Bob Boyd

Butterflies flutter in blooming sunflowers.
Squirrels tightrope on telephone wires.
Crows darken clear cloudless skies.
Blue Jays sound alarms in sycamore trees.
Rabbits seek refuge in nearby bushes.
Cars rumble along neighborhood roads.
My mind drifts to sweet, summer days
When our love was so incredibly alive.

Bob Boyd

The seven seas are deep,
but the depth of my love
is deeper for you.

The universe
is endless
as is my yearning
for you.

And If you could
add up all the stars
in all the galaxies
the total would not
come close to
all the love in
my heart for you.

Bob Boyd

He was brilliant in his youth
educated up to a PhD.
But when he got old, his
mind began to slip.
By the time he reached 80,
his mind was a blank.
A dementia destroyed his
mental faculaties, robbed
him of his memory banks.
And turned him into
something like a zombie.

Bob Boyd

I have heard about UFOs entering and exiting the ocean;
naval personnel report seeing them.

Supposedly, when they exit the water, the UFOs are
not wet.

I have also heard that the ocean is a perfect hideaway
for aliens, since much of it is unexplored.

I tend to believe these accounts are true, given the credibility
of naval personnel.

And I believe with all the increasing buzz about UFOs and
aliens and the governments disclosures,

that a historical contact between humans and aliens is
not far off.

Bob Boyd

Home from the Vietnam War, two tours,
Wheelchair-confined, broken body, traumatized mind.
High school sweetheart wife waited through the
years, the tears, the fears. Cared for him,
stayed with him, loved him through PTSD,
times of depression and despair, hospital stays,
many health problems; her love, her caring unwavering
through it all till at age sixty-eight when he died,
wife at his bedside. Could love be truer than that?

Bob Boyd

There are mystics
who say love is the way
to total liberation,
becoming one with God and
getting off the wheel of rebirth,
living forever in eternal bliss.

I love the thought of that.
I’d love to be one with God
and get off the wheel of rebirth
and live forever in eternal bliss.
But, honestly, my love,
I’d rather stay on the wheel
and keep coming back to this life,
forever … in love with you.

Bob Boyd

The duck, quack, quack, goes quack, quack
all of his life,
but
where does he go when he dies?
Does he die into nothingness,
or
is there such a thing as a duck heaven?
And if there is, does he still quack, quack,
there –
or is his incessant quacking quieted, and
he just quacks telepathically,
like
dead humans in the afterlife supposedly do,
with words or images instead of quacks?

Bob Boyd

Mountain peaks hover over the river,
aware of each other. Appraising the
colors of trees and blooming flowers,
decorating the interior of the shores,
Clouds in the sky looked ragged, a
busy haze is trying to mend them.
The sun goes down, a boat appears,
and I wonder if my true love is on it.

Bob Boyd

His friend said
get a dog instead of a woman,
as if one could just get a woman.

His friend said
a dog won’t cause you any drama
or break your heart.

When he was about to take
his friend’s advice, a woman came
into his life –

who gave him the tender loving care
that no dog ever could.

And there’s no substitute for the
tender loving care of a good woman.

Bob Boyd

Some people alleged to have been abducted,
claimed the aliens came through the walls.

More curiously, they claimed the aliens took
them back through the walls to their UFOs.

The men claimed the aliens, I think greys,
extracted their semen.

The women claimed they extracted their eggs,
supposedly to harvest humanlike hybrids.

Some claimed they saw humanlike beings in
tall oblong tubes

and members of our military at something like
an underground hospital location.

I’ve been looking into these matters for over a
year, and they get curiouser and curiouser.

And I can’t help but wonder if some of these
claims are true.

Bob Boyd

She’d been sick for three months
at age 86,

and she could feel death coming,
as if the reaper were real.

Her daughters thought she was
just imagining death coming

until they both dreamed she
had died.

And when they woke up that
morning, a call from the hospital

confirmed her mother had died.

Bob Boyd

The night felt ominous.
She sensed bad things
were going to happen.

Dark clouds obscured
the full moon, and she
heard wolves howl.

A moment later she
heard a man scream,
and she knew they had
claimed another victim.

Though she felt bad
for the man, in her mind
she thought better him
than me.

And she swore she’d
never go walking at night
during full moons again.

Bob Boyd