Poems by Bob Boyd

I listened to a YouTube audio
about women cheating on men.
One of the risks of being involved
with a woman as a girlfriend or wife.
I read of women disrespectful
to men: mansplaining, toxic
masculinity, and more insults.
I think to myself it’s no wonder
many men are falling in love
with AI female machines.

Bob Boyd

Supposedly there’s a fox
that sometimes shows himself
somewhere outside the apartment
house I live in.
Others who live here have seen him,
but I have not.
How I’d like to see that fox
appearing around here
in this small city.
And I wonder how he survives.

Bob Boyd

She wakes up
another uneventful day
her aging body stiff
her old mind groggy
she’s all alone
in her vanishing world
her dreams are buried
as she’ll be
not long from now
and she’s just waiting
to die.

Bob Boyd

Jimmy, Annie and Sarah
were playing hide and seek
in the woods next to the
neighbor they lived in.
Jimmy and Sarah hid
while Annie counted to 20.
Sarah was hiding behind
a tree laughing and was
easily found by Annie.
Annie and Sarah searched
for Jimmy but didn’t find him.
That was 50 years ago, and
despite hundreds of searches,
even by dogs and the FBI,
Jimmy was never found.

Bob Boyd

In her youth she was a mathematics
professor at an ivy league college.

Her coworkers and students
described her as incredibly brilliant

Now she’s a retired, elderly woman,
and her mind has become compromised.

Her brilliance is gone forever;
she’s lost her self awareness.

Mindless, she has become
like a zombie wandering

all over her neighborhood,
and soon she’ll be confined

to a nursing home oblivious
to everything in her ending world.

Bob Boyd

She was in my life for a few seasons
then on a whim she was gone.

Sometimes I wonder what happened
to her and if she’s still alive.

But in this ever changing life
that passes by so fast,

now I see her passing out of my life
was of little consequence

as were most of the events
of my life in retrospect.

Bob Boyd

The other night I had a dream where
I was wrestling with a formidable opponent.

Unlike the Biblical Jacob, I don’t think
I was wrestling with an angel.

My opponent looked strong and human
and not at all evil.

I thought he would easily beat me at wrestling,
as big and as muscular as he was.

But I was holding his hands and seemed
as strong as he was.

Just as I felt I could take him to the ground,
I woke up with my hands in the air,

as if they were still holding his and wrestling
with him.

I wanted a rematch in another dream last night,
but he didn’t show up.

Bob Boyd

If ghosts are real, imagine ones that are
interactive,

making the air cool around you, whispering
in your ear

appearing and disappearing in front of you,
moving things in a room.

To me, the worst would be seeing one
manifesting and looking directly at me.

Bob Boyd

In some cultures and in some beliefs,
whistling at night summons evil spirits.

I don’t believe in such nonsense, but
would I whistle at night in a dark forest?

No way, lol.

Bob Boyd

As far as humans becoming better
despite some notable improvements
in the 200,000 years we’ve been here
it seems we’ve not improved enough.

Evil flourishes, crime happens all
over the world, prisons are full.

If I had a direct line to a Creator,
I’d ask for an upgrade to improve
the human condition.

But, alas, the Creator never seems
to answer my prayers and petitions.
And I think despite the improvements,
our species will continue to have
evil flourishing, crime happening, and
prisons full of criminal humans.

I think it’s a chronic, unfixable condition
with some of us fated to be evil,
some of us fated to be criminals
in prisons all over the world.

Bob Boyd