Poems by Bob Boyd

As a child, he took a
macabre delight
in torturing and killing
animals despite being
from a loving family.

Not surprisingly, he took
that same ghoulish delight
in torturing and killing young
women when he grew up.

I say he was born bad, and
like a beast in the jungle
was following his unnatural
serial killing instincts.

You may say it was nurture
but not everyone who is
born into a toxic family
grows up torturing and
killing animals and people.

Bob Boyd

He was a handsome guy
looks equal to the female
beauty equivalents
but even though he could
have them, he preferred
what he called the plain
janes, who were quite
pretty, less concerned
with their looks, and
more beautiful inside.

Bob Boyd

I told Mac she’s dangerous
Mac didn’t listen to me
you’re just jealous, he said
he got involved with her
lured by her beauty only
unaware of the evil within
a few months later
she ran off with his money
and never was seen again
not even by the police
and poor Mac was dead.

Bob Boyd

She said she was a gypsy
and liked to wander.
I thought that was just talk
and fell in love with her.
I should have paid attention
to what she had said.
She loved me for a week
and wandered away.

Bob Boyd

He’d read about mirror gazing,
decided to try it.
At first it felt weird staring
at himself.
At times it felt scary.
Other times it made him high.
With more practice, his face
began to change.
Sometimes it look funny,
sometimes strange.
His mirror gazing ending
when his face became demonic.
And the mirror shattered.

Bob Boyd

She made all A’s in high school
a four-year scholarship
to Duke University
planned to become a doctor
like her mother before her
participated in many activities
in her high school years
loved by her classmates
nice, funny, well mannered
worked part time at a mall
upon leaving work one night
never made it home
vanished that night
abducted and killed by
a serial killer waiting
under her car
her dreams, her academics
all her achievements and
all that she was – gone
the horror and unfairness
of her death haunts me still.

Bob Boyd

She’s hooked on alcohol
can’t shake the addiction
she goes to church Sundays
tells God she’s giving up
getting drunk and drinking
back to the bars Monday
back to getting drunk again
Monday to Saturday

so far she’s repeated that
pattern for 30 plus days
church on Sunday
drunk Monday to Saturday

I’m not putting her down
horrible things happened
to Mary in her childhood
deep scars in her soul

because she keeps trying
I’m rooting for Mary
I believe she will become
free of her addiction and
have the happy life she
seeks and deserves
despite the unfortunate
beginning she had

and at least she keeps
trying, doesn’t give up.

Bob Boyd

you left this world
far too soon
never having
a chance to live
never having
a normal, full life
unable to walk
unable to talk
unable to play
as other
children play
bedbound all
your brief life
fated with water
on the brain
from birth
dead at age six
RIP sweet soul
I hope in the
afterlife
a happier home
awaited you
where you could
walk and talk
and play as
other children play.

Bob Boyd

I don’t like how in this transitory life that
in a millisecond everything can go awry.
No matter how well you planned, how well
you avoided dangerous situations,
bad things can happen to you.
A bad thing could be as random as
a heavy tree branch falling on you in a park,
killing you instantly.
Or shot to death along with others
by a mass murderer while sitting in a
fast food restaurant enjoying a meal.
Or despite all your healthy practices,
the right foods, exercise, trim body,
a deadly cancer or a fatal heart attack.
In truth, our lives hang on a thread
that can snap at any second and
put us in the ground dead and gone.
I don’t like the uncertainty of that,
and I think you don’t either.

Bob Boyd

After she graduated from the U. of Mass,
Lily decided to travel alone to India.
She was seeking enlightened truth.
She’d read the Bhagavad Gita and
other Hindu texts and books about
Hindu saints, sadhus, and gurus.
Lily practiced meditation and yoga
from what she’d learned in books.
She wanted to find an authentic
Hindu spiritual master who
could get her off the wheel of rebirths
before the end of her life.
She trekked to the Ganges, saw
many amazing and sacred sites.
But didn’t find what she considered
a real and pure Hindu saint.
She found only con artist fakes
dressed like holy men and sadhus.
A Hindu woman told her that
the saints were hiding in the Himalayas.
So she traveled to the Himalayas and
wrote a friend that she’d found her guru.
A month later, she vanished completely.
After many searches and investigations
her body was found strangled to death,
the killer or killers never found.
The locals thought they were remnants of
Thuggee thugs who strangled to death
thousands of travelers in the 18th century
as sacrifices to the goddess Kali.

Bob Boyd

She’d been a glamorous movie star
beautiful in her youth and into her sixties
blonde hair, blue eyes, trim and lovely body
at 71 years of age she was diagnosed
with an ominous, spreading cancer
for reasons unclear and risky
she chose to forego chemotherapy
at age 72, all that she had been
was gone forever, except for
her movies and cinematic fame

Bob Boyd

He lifted weights all his life
got super strong
pumped his muscles
up to the max
thought he’d lift heavy
all his life
joint problems in his 50s
a back injury in his 60s
other injuries too
now he can’t lift heavy
lost lots of muscle mass
has heart problems
had cancer too
works out light now
but at least he’s
still working out.

Bob Boyd

Your life is great
nice wife, good job,
enough money

perfect health,
no meds,
feeling great

your future bright
and sunny

a car accident
a heart attack
a job loss
a divorce
a death

in a millisecond.

Bob Boyd

Dresses modestly, looks great
without showing a lot of skin,
doesn’t do drugs or get drunk.

Doesn’t use the word fuck
to try to seem modern,
better mannered than that

Doesn’t take off her clothes
on websites and compromise
her morals for ill gotten dollars.

Doesn’t put a price tag on how
much money a man must make
to get a date with her on an app.

Doesn’t mind being called a lady
or look down on women who
are stay at home mothers.

If you’re lucky enough to
be her boyfriend or her husband,
she won’t be your submissive.

She will be supportive but also
your 50/50 loving equal
and always there for you.

She’s an old fashion woman,
but I don’t think you could do
better than her for a girlfriend
or a wife.

Bob Boyd

His friends warned him,
said she wasn’t right in the head.
He didn’t give a damn about what they said
because he wasn’t right in the head either,
and they had a love that lasted all their lives.

Bob Boyd

She watched them lower her dead baby in his little casket
into the cold ground.
Tears rained from her eyes, her heart forever broken,
her life over.
In that moment, on that day, she made a life changing
decision.
After the funeral, she dined at the most expensive
restaurant in town, like a man on death row’s last meal.
When she finished the expensive, fancy meal,
she drove to the high bridge over the raging river.
She parked her car at the beginning of the long bridge,
shuffled as if in a trance to the middle of it,
climbed on top of the safety rails, leaped into
the deep waters and drowned to death to be with her baby.

Bob Boyd

Dawn alighted
clouds glowed
birds sang
winds sighed
earth awakened
rivers paused
trumpets blasted
angels appeared
out of the clouds
and He descended.

Bob Boyd

On the day she was leaving
his heart shattered, tears streaming,
he left for work without saying goodbye.

When he knew her love for him had waned,
and she began treated him disrespectfully,
he said no one is making you stay here;
you can leave anytime you want.
The next day she left him with no regrets.

Although he knew her leaving him
was for the absolute best,
he hated her for a year after that.

Mercifully, at the end of that year,
the hate drained out of his healed heart
and he was free of his unhealthy loathing.

Bob Boyd

She was young and beautiful
like the flowers in spring.
He loved her too much, and he
became unhealthy obsessed
with her and dangerously jealous.
But she cheated on him, and he
became insane when he found out.
Now like the flowers in winter
she lies in the cold ground
beneath where the flowers died.

Bob Boyd