Poems by Bob Boyd

Lying in a hospice bed, she feels death coming

at last, at last

a sigh of relief escapes her lips

before her final breath

she senses something above her

she looks up and smiles

in radiant white light her husband is waiting

she reaches up with both hands

and he pulls her soul into heaven

Bob Boyd

I saw you in a dream twice last night,
and I felt I knew you, though
we never met in this life.
I thought you were Spanish, but
you said you were Spanish and Italian.
You were in my arms suddenly, and I
liked the feeling.
Then you were gone but appeared
again as I wandered a city street.
We talked for a while as you stood
so endearingly close to me.
Pity I didn’t get your name and will
never see you again.
After all, it was only a dream.
But a part of me hopes it was more
than a dream.

Bob Boyd

Oh, those nights and days of passion.
Oh, how incredibly good they felt.
And you were unforgettably talented
at pleasing me, and I you.
Though it wasn’t enough to hold our
relationship together,
it was enough to keep me often
remembering how good it was with you.

Bob Boyd

An old man now, when he wakes up
his body is so stiff, sometimes sore.
He thinks to himself, maybe early
rigor mortis is setting in.
At times he sees himself as just
waiting to die.
At other times he likes his shrunken,
reclusive life.
Sometimes he wishes death would
just get it over with,
take him out of his waning life.
At other times, he’s enjoys the little
pleasures of what remains of his life.
All the time he’s more keenly aware
of the impermances of this life.
And he accepts that he is temporary
as well.
And he’s okay with Death coming to
take him him away, any time, any day.

Bob Boyd

His goal in life was
to be a great poet.
He knew the odds
were next to nil
of making money
as a poet, but he
didn’t let that deter
him.

He stayed true to his
vision, working menial
jobs, making minimal
money to live off while
he wrote thousands of
poems.

Sadly, he never
became a great poet,
only a few of his
poems were published.
And nobody has ever
heard of him today.

But he lived the kind
of life he wanted to live
and worked at what he
loved without any
compromising, without
ever giving up.

I find honor in that,
and I like that he was
never swayed by the
lure of money and of
an easier life.

And that he stayed
true to his vision
all his life.

Bob Boyd

At first … she was exciting,
alluring and, oh my, such fun.
Thoughts of her were always
playing in his mind, like
a hit song you want to hear
over and over and over.
Being away from her became
unbearable to his heart.
Six months later he had to be
with her, his soulmate, forever.
He proposed, she accepted,
and they got joyfully married.
After a few months, gradually
she began to change. He saw
the real her emerging that
she had kept hidden from him.
She became inconsiderate,
indifferent, no longer loving.
She stopped being sweet. She
had won her man and no longer
needed to be endearing.
She started being difficult,
complaining, arguing always.
A year into their marriage,
he found her insufferable,
impossible, contemptible –
until she left him for another,
much to his relief … at last.

Bob Boyd

Some people claim alien human hybrids
are working in underground military bases

here in the United States. I tend to think
that may be true, probably unlike you.

Some people believe aliens have carved
up cows surgically.

I tend to think that is probably also true, given
the many surgical precisions on many cows

Some people claim the aliens created us,
some alleged abductees do too.

I tend to think that’s nonsense, but imagine
if it were true.

And what would that mean for me and you?

Bob Boyd

She was afraid to tell her hot headed husband
about a neighbor who touched her inappropriately.

She feared he’d lose his temper and get in a fight
with the neighbor.

But when the neighbor touched her a second time,
she told her husband about the violations.

Her husband became like a berserker and stormed
over to the neighbor’s house.

A fight ensued, and her husband pummeled the
neighbor to death.

The swears and screams got the attention of
other neighbors, who called the police.

When the police arrived, her husband was
cuffed and arrested.

Now he sits in prison for decades, and, alone,
she cries herself to sleep every night.

Bob Boyd

He lived to age 99, kept alive medically.
Years of chronic aches and pains,
heavily medicated for them and more.
Dementia at age 94, had no idea who
or where he was.
To me, that’s not living; it’s being kept
alive too long medically.
I’d rather live no longer than age 85
with my mind still intact, and less
operations, chronic aches and pains.

Bob Boyd

If you’ve had a kundalini awakening for years or
for decades that has not completed,

that has not developed into cosmic consciousness,
when you die, you might be surprised

and find your kundalini awakening has matured
into full blown cosmic consciousness,

and it may be all those years or decades were
preparatory for the full flowering

once you exited your body permanently.

Bob Boyd

He always fell in love too fast. In retrospect,
he now believes it was an inadequacy.

He believes he felt unloved and not valued
as a child by one of his parents,

and this made him more desparate for the
love of a woman and too quick to fall in love.

Looking back with the wisdom he has now,
he realizes if he had his life to redo

he probably would fall in love too quickly
all over again.

Bob Boyd

I’m in the combat zone of Boston, MA,
back when I’m about 25 and reckless.

I spy a girl I went to high school with
in the combat zone all by herself.

The combat zone known for strip clubs
and hookers plying their trade there.

She doesn’t want any conversations.
I sense some shame in her demeanor,

and I sense, to my surprise, she’s
a working girl there. I wonder how she

went from a quiet high school girl to
a prostitute in the combat zone.

It’s one of my life’s mysteries I’ll never
find out the answers too.

And I really don’t want to know the
awful details of how she got into that life.

Bob Boyd

Her death caused him unmitigated sorrow;
she had been his wife forever, or so it seemed.
Without her he was lost. And he felt like he
could no longer live without her and her love.
He put a pistol to his head, but didn’t have the
courage to fire it, and put it away. So he lived
out his life in angonizing misery and died alone.
Maybe he found her in the afterlife. But many
say his ghost roams his house looking for her,
as if he never found his wife forever in death.

Bob Boyd

In four years he’ll be 85,
his hopeful expiration date.
He knows living too long
is a losing proposition.
He sees dying as an awakening,
and he longs to experience it.

Bob Boyd

She’s gone forever
never coming back
all that’s left of her
bones in the ground
under a headstone
but I believe she’s
a liberated spirit
in a better world
reborn forever in
unconditional love
and eternal bliss

Bob Boyd

Streams of annoying commercials
with radio program interruptions.
God how I hate FM radio now.
It’s become such a hassel just
to listen to a program
without being bombarded by
endless, tiresome commercials,
which is why I no longer listen
to FM radio any more.

Bob Boyd

It took only 2 years for it to awaken,
straight to the crown of my head.
Yet with over 50 years of rising
it has not completed,
blossomed into cosmic consciousness.

I learned recently the reason;
it can take years or decades.
The nervous system and the mind must
be purified enough to sustain the Oneness.

This makes sense to me, as it could
be overwhelming if it completed prematurely.
One’s nervous system and mind in crisis,
a trip to the ER or a mental health facility.

Bob Boyd

Many young English women
wearing colorful dresses
perfectly made up
sweetly perfumed
some showing too much
of their goods
some with too much of
their goods hanging out
laughing and carousling
a party night in LIverpool
a few drunk on their feet
some dancing in the street
enjoying the excesses of
their soon gone youths
oblivious to any sorrows
and inevitable heartaches
living for the moment
enjoying life while they can
as if the party night will
last forever and ever

Bob Boyd

Old London Town now a city
chaotic and dying
Big Ben looking down
with a frown on his clock face
tears at 3 and 9 am
yet another week of stabbings
an 18-year-old English lad
lies dying on the ground
bleeding out from 5 wounds
stabbed randomly by a
crazy sikh carrying a knife

police are roughly cuffing
the innocent English lad
ignoring his dying pleas
he asks for an ambulance
and he’s telling them
he’s been stabbed
one cop says I don’t believe
you mate

they think he started a fight
because he is white
and the sikh guy who
has a darker skin hue
is innocent because of
his darker skin hue
(that’s how it is in not
so merry London now)

they take the sikh’s word
and the handcuffed young
brit bleeds out on the ground
and dies in front of the cops
the sikh gets a prison sentence
the British cops have yet
to be punished and they
might never be

and Big Ben’s chimes sound
like anguished cries for the
London he knows has fallen
and will never be the same
as it was in its saner days
when good British citizens
and concerned patriots
were not treated like pariahs

Bob Boyd

You always looked so beautiful
when I saw you at various events.
In retrospect, I think you were into me.
Though we didn’t know each other,
except for a few words from you.
I didn’t see the significance of those
brief words back then.
Besides, you were married, and I
was respectful of that.
But, oh how I wonder how things might
have been if you had been free
and really were into me.
And I still remember how beautiful you
looked when I saw you at those events.

Bob Boyd