I’m talking a hike in a nearby forest,
minding my own business, per usual.

The entire forest goes silent, no birds
squawking, no insects making a racket.

I know from reading fake stories about
monsters this silence means one of them

has entered the forest; I know it’s supposed
to mean danger and horror has arrived.

The fake stories about monsters were
halfway right.

When my ex-girlfriend appeared, looking
evil as hell, kinda like a monster as well.

Believe me, no monsters had anything
on her, terrifying as she looked.

Because I always thought she was possessed,
I made sure I armed myself with a cross and holy water.

When she charged me with fingernails brandished
as long as knives and screeching like a bona fide demon,

I held my cross in front of her face and doused her
with holy water as a back up.

She screamed loud enough to break the sound barrier,
her face looked like a demon’s.

She flew out of the forest screaming and swearing,
and she never bothered me again.

Bob Boyd

Melinda went to college to be a teacher,
though she got good grades, she put more
effort into partying and binge drinking.

She graduated with a 3.00 but a 4.00 in
partying and binge drinking.

Unknown to her, the cumulative effect of
all that binge drinking messed up her mind,
clouded her morality.

When she began teaching, she was like a
superstar, loved by her students, praised by
the principal and the senior teachers.

But because her mind was messed up
and her morality clouded from all that
binge drinking, she did something naughty
with one of her preteen students.

Now Melinda is no longer teaching;
she’s serving a five year prison sentence
for her inappropriate behavior with that
preteen student.

Bob Boyd

Ronny was an adventurous soul
as well as a daredevil.

He was also a born again Christian
who talked in tongues.

He was curious too, decided to attend
a Pentecostal snake handling

religious meeting deep in Kentucky
led by the famous Reverend Notts.

When the reverend handed him
a hissing rattler to hold,

Ronny caught up in the religious fervor,
grabbed it a little too tightly.

The rattler, angry as hell, bit Ronny on
the neck,

and Ronny saw blazing white light
bright as the sun.

Seconds later, Ronny passed out and died,
maybe he made it to heaven.

Bob Boyd

Her life has become miserable
she’s 67 years old and alone
she has no friends, only a
few distant relatives
her days are dismal
the tv shows she used to enjoy
seem mindless and dull
she wishes she were dead
with her husband of 30 years
who died a year ago today.

Bob Boyd

When he was 10,
30 was old.

When he was 30,
50 was old.

When he was 50
70 was old.

None of those numbers
really mattered when at
70 he was dead.

Bob Boyd

The rains pounded the earth
birds and animals took cover
humans as well
some with umbrellas
in the midst of the taking cover
the unfolding of umbrellas
the pounding rains
the earth sighed, enjoying
the long awaited shower.

Bob Boyd

to want to know
really know
firsthand

about the mysteries
the wonders
of the
Great Beyond

thus I welcome
Death

the usher
who will lead me
into the theater
of the afterlife.

Bob Boyd

A tender teenager who felt deprived of love
by his parents,

he yearned to find that love in a romantic
relationship.

At sixteen, he found that love in a beautiful
girl his age.

But as often happens with teenage love,
she left him for another.

The breakup was too much for his wounded
heart to bear.

He hung himself to death in his bedroom closet,
his need for love, his agony, no more.

Bob Boyd

His father made him a seaworthy toy boat.
He sailed it in the brook behind their house.
One day the toy boat got away from him.
It sailed through the brook to a river,
from the river to the sea, then to an ocean
and into the hands of a little boy in China.

Bob Boyd

She had an off-putting, weird personality;
she didn’t fit in with others.

She was that way all her life, never able
to get along with others,

always thought to be disagreeable and
unbearably weird.

It wasn’t her fault; it was the burden
she was born with.

Bob Boyd