Heart implant done,
everything good
not a problem
a heart enhancement

what could seem
sad or tragic to you
an opportunity
for more growth
to me

and surprisingly
I always get
a Zen-like
C’est la vie
acceptance
in moments like this

besides I can keep
working out
riding my exercise bike
2 hours daily
writing poems
2,500 in under 2 years
shooting for 10,000
before Grim ushers
me into the higher life

besides none of this is lasting
in this impermanence

I’m just a sojourner here
standing in line
to board the good ship
permanence
devoid of the uncertainties
suffering and evil
in this transitory existence

or maybe come back
become fully enlightened
a spiritual powerhouse
with powerful emanations
and spiritually and
physically help countless people

this poem is about far more
than inconvenient
or even tragic earthly matters
it’s about acceptance and
an eventual liberation
from the woes and worries
of this impermanent world.

Bob Boyd

The heart doctors tell me
two chambers in my heart
one on top
the other on the bottom
are not talking to each other
electrical communication
between the two
in a healthy heart
in my heart
the bottom chamber
is not communicating
with the the upper chamber
a pace maker has
to be implanted in my heart
a heart implant today
a brain implant tomorrow
so my lower self can communicate better
with my higher Self.

Bob Boyd

Lying on a hospital bed
at Moses Cone hospital
Greensboro
wires attached to my body
on small circular pads
one attached to my
right index finger
I’m feeling like a human machine
with all this wires extending out of me
Lying on a hospital bed
at Moses Cone hospital
Greensboro
wires attached to my body
on small circular pads
one attached to my
right index finger
I’m feeling like a human machine
with all this wires extending out of me
maybe they’ll supercharge my body
maybe they’ll upgrade my mind
and give me super strength
and stupendous psychic powers.

Bob Boyd

Sitting in the ER
intermittent chest pans
might be from
1. a chest muscle strain
2. too much phlegm
3. signs of a heart problem
hoping for 1. or 2.
who wouldn’t be?
given 3 medical tests
ironically 3. failed
them all
now a nurse casually says
we’ll find you a bed
silent mayday alarms
go off in my head
a stay at the hospital
a heart problem
has come down the pike.

Bob Boyd

In her youth she was always happy
had lots of fun friends
partied and laughed a lot
in her young and exciting life
now she’s a 90-year-old lady
and the friends are gone
all dead
she’s alone now
the laughter gone
unhappy and depressed.

Bob Boyd

11-year-old Alice Glaston
From Little Wenlock
Arrested in 1546.
No one knows anymore
What she was on trial for.
Hung alongside two grown men.
In Henry VIII’s England.
In Much Wenlock,
Shropshire, England
in 1546.
The reason, the crime
real or contrived
forever lost in time.

Bob Boyd

The Battle of Agincourt
Henry V had
6,000 to 8,000 men
Charles d’Abret
15,000 to 16,000
English longbow archers
Saved the Day
Despite the overwhelming
Three to one odds
Thousands of arrows
That darkened the sky
Evened the odds
Awarded the English
The impressive win
5,000 plus French dead
Only 600 English Dead
What a terrible price
For all who died
What a horrible waste
Of so many human lives
Though it was glorious
A win against great odds
It’s a reminder of ravages
Of the cost of wars
The untold numbers
Of dead human lives
If only our species
Didn’t have to have wars
From its ancient origins
To the wars today.

Bob Boyd

The solicitor stops at a village near Count Dracula’s liar.
The villagers cross themselves at the mention of Dracula.
They warn him of the horrors at the castle.
He blows their warnings off as foolish superstition.
And you know, it’s to his coming peril.
A wise man would have dialogued with the villagers,
investigated their claims of werewolves and vampires.
Heeded their well meaning warnings.
Felt the portents in their words.
Sensed the horrors at the castle.
Pulse and heart beat quickening,
he would have prudently turned back
and saved himself and his mortal soul
from the terrors that awaited him that dark day.

Bob Boyd

The cold season is nearing now,
61 degrees today.

Like a warrior before a war,
I’m prepared for it.

And I’m looking forward to
the increasingly colder days.

Though I’ll shiver a time or two
and get chilled a bit, almost to the bones.

I’ll survive the worst of the winter cold
with little use of heat

and enjoy the invigorating effects of the
stirring winter chill.

Bob Boyd

When I was in grade school and high school
teachers always told me and my classmates
fighting is wrong, don’t do it.

At some point, I became aware of all the adults
fighting wars and found what the adult teachers
said to be hypocritical.

Here they were setting a standard that grown ups
failed to follow all over the world.

Now many, many decades beyond childhood,
I stopped fighting ages ago when I was a young man,
but I find it disturbing that adults are still fighting.

I find it disturbing that we still have wars, and
adults are still fighting and even dying in wars
all over the world.

And I wish when my teachers told me and my
classmates fighting was wrong, don’t do it,
that adults all over the world took their advice.

Bob Boyd