Maybe there are creatures
lurking in the unseen,
hidden from us except on rare
occasions
where people report sightings
of these creatures called cryptids.
Perhaps the unseen is comprised of many
dimensions unknown to us.
Maybe like animals living in a forest, many
different creatures live and thrive
in unseen worlds beyond our senses
and our perceptions.
Bob Boyd
In my twenties I was playing a pong game
in an upright machine at a store I was working in;
I think in the seventies.
A woman came up behind me, so close I could
feel the softness of her beautiful body against me.
She wasn’t my type, but thinking back maybe
she could have been
as much as her closeness affected me,
as nice as it felt having her that near me.
Old and womanless now, how I miss those days
and the closeness of women once in my life.
Bob Boyd
The grocery store is brimming with people,
foot traffic everywhere.
Strangers all.
Three with carriages almost
run into me, pleasant excuse me’s.
Curiously, this feels a little like socialization –
this recluse’s rare contact with others.
Maybe I need to get out in the world more.
Bob Boyd
In retrospect
many are the times I’ve been
blinded by love
unable to see red flags rising
unable to discern them silently unfurling
at least, my vision always cleared
with time and disappointments
at least, I was able to extract myself
from those shortsighted relationships
with 20/20 vision.
Bob Boyd
More and more
I’ve become keenly
aware
of the impermanence
of this transitory life.
More and more I see
how nothing, not even
romantic love,
lasts in
this fleeting world.
And the impermanence of
romantic love
disturbs me deeply
despite my being long
removed from it.
Bob Boyd
It was once a great empire
“upon which the sun never set.”
Now it’s barely a remnant of its
forever greatness.
Now it’s like a wounded lion
slowly dying.
And ripe for the conquering
from within –
without even a shot fired
and unwitting appeasement –
of imported exploiters with no
allegiance to it.
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