She was raised in a family
that hated black people
just because they looked
different.

She grew up with her
parents’ bias and began
to pass the unjustifired hate
on to her children.

But, mercifully, one day
a compassionate black woman
saved her son from drowning,
which opened her eyes to the
goodness in many of that race.

Thereafter she altered her thinking
and acceptance of people not of
her race.

And the years of hate drained out
of her, replaced with acceptance
and love, which she passed on
to her children.

Bob Boyd

I see two beautiful swans floating in a pond,
like soulmate birds together forever.
They look so sublime, and how beautiful
they would look in a painting.
It’s all so grand until a duck with her little
ducklings appears, and the swans begin
attacking the mother duck and her babies.
And the beautiful swans become uglier
than the ugly duckling and so predatory.
I wade into the water, distract the swans,
as they begin attacking me.
But at least the ducks get away, and I
stave off the vicious swans with my cane.

Bob Boyd

His body gets weaker, stiffer,
rising from a chair without using the armrest
takes more effort.
Sometimes he experiences soreness in
his aging legs upon waking,
and his walking is bit more labored.
He feels like its pre rigor mortis creeping in,
signaling his impending demise.
As he wakes more from the sleeping world,
the weakness, stiffness and soreness lessen.
And he’s grateful for having lived a long life.

Bob Boyd

I see a rabbit outside my apartment
in the dark at night.
He stares at me, and for a moment
I think he’s not going to fear me.
I speak to him softly, and I move
slowly so not to scare him.
Just when I think I have befriended
him, he dashes away.
I think to myself maybe the rabbit
and I will be friends another day.

Bob Boyd

The heedless government allowed
hundreds of thousands to sneak in
it’s once peaceful city.
They were unvetted, military age men
who didn’t share the country’s values,
who didn’t respect their women or
their laws.
As a result, crime rose, shoplifting,
pickpocketing, rapes, knife attacks.
Now the city is an unsafe, shrinking
hellscape people are fleeing from.

Bob Boyd

I feel in love with
Amy Wasserman
at first sight

She had
peach-colored skin
golden brown eyes
honey brown hair
a comely figure
a beautiful face
the sweetest voice

I fell out of love
with her at
second sight

she had too many
complaints
became way
too annoying
frayed my nerves
repeatedly

we didn’t
have a damn thing
in common.

Bob Boyd

An old melancholic romantic
sits alone in an apartment
listening to an old love song
captured by the song’s lyrics
he pines for one last love
before he dies and is buried
never finding that final love
his lifeless body in a coffin
his last tears in his eyes

Bob Boyd

He’s hiking alone in a forest
and everything becomes quiet.
He senses imminent danger in
the sudden hush.
His pulse quickens, his heart
pounds faster.
He decides to hike back to
his car on the edge of the park
to escape the unseen horror.
He sees the air vibrating all
around him, his heart stops,
as he’s sucked into a vortex
Where he blacks out and
never wakes up.
He’s now a 411 statistic,
and has never been found.

Bob Boyd

He bought flowers for a girlfriend
he hadn’t seen in 40 years.
Their’s had been a teenage love
that lasted only for 2 years.
But he pined for her all his life,
never quite got over her.
When he finally got to see her
she’d been dead a few years.
He gently placed the flowers
he bought her upon her grave,
and told her he’d always love
her as tears fell from his eyes.

Bob Boyd

When he died, he saw the light,
beckoning him to enter it.
But because he had lived in darkness
as a serial killer, killing many people,
he feared and sensed the light would
capture him and take him to hell.
So he never entered it, preferring to
roam the earth as a renegade ghost,
haunting houses and people forever.

Bob Boyd