Little bird trapped in a tiny cage,
and born in one,

does a part of you ever yearn
for the freedom you never knew?

Is there a primordial collective
memory inside of you that

beckons back something more
than being trapped till you die

in a tiny cage?

And do you sing your songs
daily for the sweetheart
you never knew

and who will never hear
your beautiful songs?

Maybe like you, I’m trapped
in a tiny cage too.

Bob Boyd

According to various historical accounts,
Saint Joseph of Cupertino could smell sin,
“foul, unbearable odors around certain people.”

In various passages in the Bible the stench
of sin is written about.

Pray, Pilgrim, that when you die, you smell
like the lillies in the fields instead of
the skunks in the forests.

Pray, Pilgrim that all this talk about the
stench of sin is metaphorical,

and you won’t need deodorant
in the hereafter.

Bob Boyd

Assuming there’s an afterlife, which I believe
there is

I’ve often wondered if I would meet people there
I knew on earth and didn’t like

Were I to meet people I didn’t like in the afterlife
or people who didn’t like me

that would turn my afterlife experiences from the
supposed light and love into a hereafter hell.

Bob Boyd

When he was a child,
he prayed to God for a pony,
never got it.

He was led to believe God
was like a genie in a bottle
that you prayed to for things
and you got them.

Throughout the years
most of his prayers went
unanswered

and he wondered if God
really ever answered
prayers

or if those prayers he
thought might have been
answered were merely
conindences

he never lost his belief
in God, but he became
a skeptic about the
effectiveness of prayers.

Bob Boyd

Her marriage had become boring;
she no longer loved her husband.

She decided she needed her freedom
and another shot at lasting, romantic love.

After the divorce, she posted alluring photos of
herself on social media,

joined dating apps, had a hundred men
vying for her attention.

After dozens of disappointments, married men,
men who were users, one night stands, etc,

she became emotionally hardened and grilled
potential dates as if they were applying for a job.

Bitter, feeling used, growing older, she hated
the dating apps but still used them,

and she missed the stability of her failed marriage,
wondered if she should have tried harder to salvage it.

Bob Boyd

He was blessed with exceptional looks
and a seductive personality.

Practiced, he knew just what to say
to get a woman to fall in love with him.

He would fall in love with her as well,
and oh how he loved that elated feeling.

But when the shine wore off the love
and the woman’s looks,

he got bored, moved on in search of
the excitement, the highs, of a new love.

Bob Boyd

Six teenagers get the idea to play hide and seek
in the Woodlawn Cemetery on an October night.

The hiding one slips into the cemetery and vanishes
deep within it.

The five remaining teenagers count to 30 and
charge into the cemetery after the hiding one.

What seemed like an easy find, turns out to be
an unsolved mystery.

They call the hiding one, but no answers come,
and they get worried.

They see a terrifying specter floating toward them
and run out of the cemetery.

And the hiding one stays hidden forever.

Bob Boyd

I wonder where ants
go
when they die.

Do they have a
heaven
or do they just die?

If humans have a
heaven
why can’t ants?

Or because they are
bugs
do they get shortchanged?

I don’t like the thought
of
the unfairness in that.

I’d rather all living
things
have a heaven.

I’d rather ants don’t
just
die into nothingness.

Bob Boyd

Sometimes I wish I could
annihilate the need for

a woman in my life.

Usually I can suppress it
but once in a lonely while

it resurfaces.

During those times, I
think to myself I’m too old

for this nonsense.

But I’d rather never have
what I see as a weakness

pester me again.

Bob Boyd

I’m at my computer
minding my own business

and ack! I feel something
buzz or brush against

my hand then I realize
it’s another stink bug.

At least once a month
one of them sneaks

into my apartment
unseen by me then

buzzes by my head
or even lands on me.

And I eventually coax
it onto a piece of paper

and carry it outside.

Bob Boyd

She used her as a child to make money with,
let men sexually abuse her.

She passed her drug habit on to her
when she was only a child

She grew up wild and crazy, addicted
to drugs, often getting in fights.

She robbed and shot a husband, wife and
their child to death, got the death penalty.

Miracously, she found God in prison, became
a prison saint years before her execution.

Bob Boyd

Some people who are attracted to others
in the haze of infatuation

do not think of the importances of
compatibles

for example, if she is outdoorsy and
you are not

for example, if he is a homebody and
you are a social butterfly

maybe one can work around these
incompatibilities

based on decades of experience,
I’ve learned I cannot.

Bob Boyd

I once read death is like deep sleep.
I once read in hard-boiled detective fiction
death is the Big Sleep.
If death is like deep sleep, every night
you have a rehearsal of your expiration.
I believe death is a continuation based on
the many near death experiences accounts.
But if it is only deep sleep and nothing more,
I’ve become perfectly okay with that.

Bob Boyd

I’m so thankful I don’t pursue
women anymore.

I’m free of disappoments,
rejections or bad experiences.

Sure it can be lonely at times,
but it’s also liberating.

Bob Boyd

A single mistake
can cause you
problems beyond
belief, mess up
your life for weeks,
months or years.

A single mistake
can put you in
the hospital or
disable you
for life.

A single mistake
can end your life,
put you in the
ground forever.

Bob Boyd

So many people seeking love
online and in person.
So many people disappointed,
imperfect matches.
Why can’t it be easier,
finding the right one?

Bob Boyd

Folks called Mary Weatherton Miss Mary,
a beloved social worker who served the poor.

Throughout the years she helped thousands
find shelter, food, supportive programs.

She helped hundreds of homeless people
get off the streets and live better lives.

All of her humanitarian work, all of her kindness,
ended when a crazed homeless person

stabbed her multiple times in the chest
and ended her exceptional life.

I think to myself, where was the God
of Love in that?

Bob Boyd

Somewhere little mice are carrying on
merrily in cages,

running around having fun, playing
with each other.

Unknown to them, their lives are
ending soon

in the bellies of pet snakes, their
brief existence merely for food.

Maybe I shouldn’t be concerned
about that,

but the contrast of happy, carefree mice
being terrified and eaten

by snakes, disturbs me deeply.

Bob Boyd

A little girl lies in a hospital bed,
wires hooked up all over her,
a breathing apparatus on her nose.

She looks barely alive, a pitiful
sight.

She can barely speak … until
she says, “Jesus is hugging me.”

Then she starts listing the
titles of various books in the Bible,

titles her mother says she
never knew of.

To me, this is miraculous, and
I believe it’s entirely true.

Bob Boyd

I’ve often seen people hugging wild animals
in YouTube videos.

Sure it’s surprising and fun to see, but
I worry about those people

because some have died when the
animals in an unexpected moment

were no longer tame and compliant
but became wild again.

And in that terrifying moment, attacked
and ended those humans lives.

Bob Boyd