The Hare Krishna’s say Krishnaloka is where you
Need to go after you die, if you can get there.
It takes a lot of chanting Hare Krishna’s to get there
And probably the right incarnation and the right karma.

Christians say heaven with Jesus is where you
Need to go after you die, if you can get there,
If you can avoid the snares of Satan’s hell
And probably pray enough and be good enough.

Muslims believe you go to a Muslim heaven
called jannah if you have lived righteously
according to their teachings.

Imagine if they were all right. Imagine if
There were multiple afterlife paradises
Depending on what religion or path you followed.

Imagine if the non-dualists were right, and
You had to get beyond all these dualities
And merge into the infinite Oneness.

Bob Boyd

Two women in Sheffield,UK
strutting their stuff on a busy street
dressed so nice, looking so pretty
until they start screaming at each other
like shrews on steroids, like freakin’ crazies
then the police come, maybe for them
the pretty women calm down
but only momentarily, temporarily
then the unbecoming screaming
erupts again, but morphs into screeching
the out of control, unhinged ladies
embarrassing themselves, worse is two
dudes are videoing them with cell phones
great content for their YouTube channels
bad for these pretty women turned banshees
the Internet never forgets.

Bob Boyd

On a busy Street in Sheffield, England
a man, brown hair, about 5 foot eight
medium build, wearing a beanie knit cap
stumbling and mumbling around
hardly about to walk, barely coherent
a policeman appears, talks to him
calm voice almost consoling
then he takes him away with two
other police, hopefully to get him help
if he is receptive to receiving help
the three police return and have a chat
properly and friendly with the YouTuber
who was videoing them and the man
two of the police are females, one a male
and the females are criminally pretty
I don’t know what they did with the man
nothing was said about him,
perhaps for legal, privacy reasons, but
I enjoyed hearing the British police talk
listening to their Queen’s English accents.

Bob Boyd

Fentanyl caused 199 deaths daily in 2023
over a quarter of a people died from it since 2021
probably none of them known by you or me
but what a goddamn shame all these people
have been literally executed by this demon drug
it’s easy to blow it off; they’re not you or me
but they’re somebody, once a child who
was held in a mother’s arms, an innocent babe
that had such promise for living a good life
it’s so sad and so tragic that that child
grew up to only to die from a drug
the promise gone, the lights out, to many
just another fentanyl statistic, nothing more
to some probably losers who got their due
but they were just people, like you and like me
who probably didn’t have the advantages
the genetics, the mental faculties, the luck
of millions of more fortunate others
like those born into near perfect lives
with excellent mental and physical health
great genetics, decent nurturing families
no horrendous tragedies that break them
and probably less breakable minds
my hope is in the afterlife those who
died from that murderous, demon-like drug
get a chase to do a redo for a better outcome
in the afterlife or back in this lesser life.

Bob Boyd

Once in a while, probably in weaker times,
I think about how nice it would be
to have the warmth of a woman in my life

when I write warmth, I mean the companionship
the words, the gestures, the endearments
that can bring some warmth into your heart

likened to how warmth in its true definition
can drive away the cold, like the right woman
can drive away the downsides of being alone

that feeling of how nice it would be to have
the warmth of a woman in my life doesn’t
last too long, and I make no attempts to

have a woman in my life because like a
rose has thorns, so can a relationship
that can make your heart bleed with sorrow

so I stick to my womanless, reclusive ways
writing poems, researching, gaining knowledge,
without any risks of putting my heart in jeopardy.

Bob Boyd

On the Art Bell show, a young woman who called in
said she’d like to be abducted by aliens
In so many words, Art said, be careful what you wish for
He went on to say some abductees have gotten PTSD
from being snatched out of their homes by aliens
and held captive in the UFO’s or elsewhere

One of the problems I have with these cases of alien abductions
is that they seem to be revealed under hypnosis
which I don’t see as reliable or as proof of abductions
people can be led in hypnotic states to believe what the
hypnotist leads them to believe

but there’s a man named Jim Sparks who supposedly
knew he was abducted for years without hypnosis
listening to him, he sounds quite creditable
but, still, he could be just another untruthful person
claiming he was abducted for whatever reasons

I’m on the fence about believing or not believing
in these alleged abductions despite similarities
one hears and reads about
In fact, I’d rather they were untrue and no aliens
were kidnapping people from their homes and
experimenting on them
obviously, that would be the best outcome.

Bob Boyd

Right from high school I dreamed of finding
the one, the soulmate, the perfect love for me

my dream was to meet her in high school
fall in love with her, get married

be the fairy tale happily ever after
instead I got the happily never after, lol

a while back I thought since many people
like me don’t find the one, the eternal soulmate
in this uncertain, often unlucky in love life

maybe they find their soulmates
in the glorious, unimaginable afterlife
now I’m not so sure, maybe romantic love is
superseded by unconditional love
in the unseeable, the unfathomable

I believe what Elizabeth Kubler Ross
said, “Look forward to your transition.
It’s the first time you will experience
unconditional love.”

I like the thought of that
I believe she and the NDEers – who
experienced what they call Source and the
unconditional love – are right

but if I had my choice, I’d rather be
with the soulmate never found in this life
with her finally in a heavenly paradise
heart aglow, souls in sync, happy forever
bored with each other, falling out of love …

never.

Bob Boyd

Mothers posing with dead babies
a photographic trend in late 1800s
but, alas, what a sad sight to see

families posing with dead grandparents,
fathers, mothers, children

sometimes dead pets too

a photographed last farewell
heartbreaking to imagine
how sorrowful
how painful

that last
captured goodbye
must have felt.

Bob Boyd

Base Camp Chris
a good and kindly guy

tells the best and strangest
hiking and camping stories

I listen to him often
because his unique stories on YouTube

sent to him by many
are so amazingly good

for example, see his frightening and
mysterious story about the Tree Bear.

Bob Boyd

In the town of Nethertown
the ghouls hold sway

highest crime rate
for a small town

in all of the USA

sightings of cryptids
many

ghosts aplenty

horrors, incomprehensible
abound

heads of humans and
animals often found

the town once a haven
for the dark arts

witches and warlocks
hung to death

now the town suffers
the aftereffects

of the smoldering dark magic

emanating from the
bodies and bones

of the dead witches and warlocks
buried under Nethertown.

Bob Boyd