Sometimes I wonder if individuals
in different places, times and cultures
invented the many gods and goddesses
all across the peopled planet
promoted them to the point
others began believing in them
accepted them as real
felt moved to worship them
in other words, like fake news
many people believed
the imaginative, fake stories
of gods and goddesses

of course, the other possibility is
visionaries, knowers of the unknown
seers of the unseen
could have been chosen
by gods and goddesses
as worthy to be revealed to
revealed and manifested
real and genuine

I have to admit I like
the second version better
the genuine instead of
the imagined
but I tend to believe
that it’s plausible
the Absolute
in Its infinite mercy
would honor the beliefs
the ones imagined
and they eventually
would become real
conduits to the Divine.

Bob Boyd

When I heard of trolls in fairy tales and folklore
I thought they were imaginary
I thought they were just fake annoyances
that somebody or somebodies dreamt up
but that was long before I got on the Internet
and learned that trolls are annoyingly real.

Bob Boyd

An engineer lost his wife in 1963
she unexpectedly died
at the age of 40
heartbroken, he couldn’t go on
with life as usual
he sold their house and
his belongings
quit his high paying job
became a vagabond
wandered all over the US
his way of trying to heal himself
mending his heart
that broke into a thousand pieces
trying to put those pieces
back together again
his wandering ended 5 years later when
he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge
some broken hearts never heal.

Bob Boyd

She never thought she’d be a crime statistic
or have the crime against plastered
all over the news and on YouTube videos.

She was savagely murdered in June of 1993
on an unhallowed halloween night
by an evil stranger for the fun of it

in her home on Beacon Street awakened from sleep.
Fifty years later people who have lived the house she owned
occasionally see her ghost roaming through it

as if she never crossed over in the tunnel of white light
into the glowing meadows and enchanted lands
of the heavenly paradise in the afterlife.

Bob Boyd

Some people are so easily brainwashed
and easily radicalized to swallow untruths
some have died for heinous, harmful lies
became evil pawns, tried to kill others
for falsehoods duped into believing
recently some of them arrested in California
a plot to kill thousands of innocent people.

Bob Boyd

A school of cobra endler fish
swimming in fascinating swirls
inside my ten gallon aquarium
up and down back and forth
round and round merrily
like happy children at play.

Bob Boyd

The world needs more people who kid around
fun people with sprinkles and sparkles of joy
who light up this world with a little merriment
lightheartedness in all the doom and gloom
interjecting healing, joyful laughter into it
oh how we need more of those people in this
world sometimes called the veil of tears
where like torrents of rain tears often fall.

Bob Boyd

Sometimes love goes well, sometimes not,
sometimes it’s deadly

a guy gives his heart to a
woman he thinks is his soulmate

a year later she cheats on him
and leaves him

a woman gives her heart to a bad boy
she liked the excitement and the challenges

two years later after much physical abuse
he beats her to death

a guy gives his heart to a sweet woman
a few months later, the sweetness is gone

he strays in the relationship hoping it will improve
but she keeps making his life miserable

a woman gives her heart a man with a lot of money
tells everybody she knows she got a great catch

but to him she’s just a trophy and a conquest
he’s incapable or real, true love

luckiest are those who despite the risks to their hearts
find true love that lasts for the rest of their lives.

Bob Boyd

Been following folklore, watching the stories on YouTube videos
but as bad as some of the monsters are in folklore stories
they pale in comparison to the monsters in the human world.

Bob Boyd

I learned today 200 people’s dead bodies
are on Everest

because you die there and you usually stay there
too dangerous to take your body down the mountain

but bravo to those with the grit to climb Everest
even at the risk of losing their lives

as for me, I’m not that brave or adventurous
I prefer climbing smaller mountains in life

that don’t require mountain gear
that don’t require climbing actual mountains

the mountain I climb is the mountain of trying to stay
sane and alive in this challenging, crazy world.

Bob Boyd