I’m watching a video about sand cats.
Three of the cutest kittens ever
with big inquisitive eyes
are huddled together in a row.

A venomous snake is slithering
menacingly toward them.
The kittens don’t run or cry out.
They remain huddled together,
maybe unaware death is approaching.

The snake slithers nearer
and bam! strikes one of the kittens,
way too cute to die.
The kitten immediately falls over
convulses for a moment and dies.

The mother, who has sensed the
danger, appears from out of nowhere,
charges the snake, bats it with clawed
strike after strike until the snake
slithers away.

She picks up the dead kitten and
puts it somewhere away from predators
who would devour its dead body.
Meanwhile, the snake slithers back
intent on killing another kitten.
And the raging mother intercepts him.

Neither the mother or the snake back down.
The mother crouches inches from the snake’s
head, fury in her eyes, looking directly into its eyes.
She’s so close to the venomous snake’s deadly fangs
that I fear it’s going to shrike her and kill her.
But she’s far too fast for the snake, easily dodges
its strikes while parrying with deadly claw strikes.

The back and forth goes on for about five minutes
until the snake battered, bleeding and torn,
tries to slither away.
But the mother knows she has to finish it,
otherwise it will come back to kill her remaining kittens.
She catches up to it, claws it into submission,
and bites its head off, justice and a gratifying finish.

Bob Boyd

It’s like a crow apocalypse outside my apartment,
caw, caws everywhere on the ground and in the air.
I wonder what the crows are about with all their
constant crow chatter.
Are they partying like human hedonists, or is it
like a massive, human family gathering?
A neighbor I talked to long ago when
one of these huge crow gatherings happened,
said he thought they all arrived when
someone had passed away that day.
I kinda like that superstitious rendering of it,
but I cannot stretch my mind enough to believe it.
So, I’m sticking with it’s something akin
to a massive human family gathering.
However, they are probably here looking for food,
recently fallen from trees or rising from the ground.

Bob Boyd

They’re dying off
becoming extinct
an entire generation
the known and the unknown
the famous and the infamous
reduced to bones in a boneyard
hardly even remnants
of their life histories
their successes and failures

eventually we’ll all be unknowns
no matter how famous today
or still famous from centuries ago
when enough time passes by
ten to ten thousand years
in eternity’s wink of an eye
fare thee well, bye bye
to you and to me, eventually.

Bob Boyd

I keep surrendering this
kundalini energy to God
for a sanctioned completion
yet that never comes
perhaps I’m surrendering it
to the wrong aspect of God
the finite Personal instead
of the infinite Impersonal.

Bob Boyd

While she’s doing her
personal attention ASMR
in her YouTube video
watching and listening
I fall into a relaxed, semi-trance
the soothing sound of her voice
her hypnotic hand movements
and I remember how soothing
a woman can be to a man’s soul.

Bob Boyd

Bombs and drones
dropping from the sky
explosions and devastation
screams and cries
the dead and
wounded everywhere
the cost of war
the price too high
image how exorbitant
it will be with nukes.

Bob Boyd