He was a Buddhist monk,
dead set on attaining nirvana.

But when he saw her in a dream,
and she appeared to him the next day

in a bazaar in a Tibetan city, he knew
they were destined to be lovers.

A man of honor, he couldn’t forsake
his vows as a Buddhist monk,

so he renounced his vows, left the
monastery, to be with her, his true love.

They died together in a fatal car crash
many years later.

Now they’re in their own shared nirvana
of eternal romantic love, soulmates

in love forever and ever and ever.

Bob Boyd

He was a prolific painter, and a prolific lover too. Fourteen
children and many wives and mistresses. Some hate him.
They say he was a user and a heartless womanizer.
Me, I just see that his imperfections were incidental to his
being a great artist. And I anticipate many artists will have
many flaws as part of their creative and complex beings.
So despite their shortcomings and the people they may
have hurt, I just focus on their works of art.

Sue me if you disagree, anon reader.

Bob Boyd

It was springtime when I left her,
me, a homebody most of the time,
her, a social butterfly all of the time,
incompatible, unworkable, no hope,
so I had to say goodbye and leave.

Her, dead at 53 decades ago, me
almost dead a few years ago.
Maybe we’ll meet again in the
wintertime when I join her in death
and we’ll be compatible and in love.

Bob Boyd

I wholeheartedly believe there’s luck in love,
good luck and bad luck.

Many relationships, never the right one, and
many cracks and scars on your lovelorn heart –

bad luck.

You meet your first girlfriend in high school,
a teenage romance that usually doesn’t last.

Despite the odds, you remain true to each other,
get married, and stay in love for the rest of your lives –

awesome luck.

And some seem lucky in love while others seem
unlucky in love.

The worst bad luck love, that I’ve seen countless times
on true crime shows, is when your bad luck in love

costs you your life because the one you thought you got
lucky with was a monster that ended your life.

And far too many good women and good men in this
uncertain world die that way.

Bob Boyd

It used to bother me when people said,
I’ll love you till the day I die.

That wasn’t good enough. I will love
you forever seemed and felt right.

But now I believe I’ll love you till I die
is correct

because I see love as biological for
the advancement of the species,

and despite the hearts, flowers, loving
words and endearing names, like honey,

I believe with death romantic love dies,
and unconditional love lives.

There’s no need for procreation there,
and no sex organs to do it with.

But, by the heavens above, I hope I’m
wrong about romantic love.

Bob Boyd

He felt unloved by his mother
when he was a child.

When he grew up, he became
a missionary at an

impoverished coal mine town.
He was beloved there, let a

sick woman live in his home
while he lived in a coal miner

shack, slept on the floor. The
people in that town called

him Christ of the Coal Mines.
But the heads of the missionary

program he worked for fired him;
he was too authentic for them.

He became an artist after that.
struggled to gain any recognition,

hardly sold any of his paintings.
He also struggled with mental,

health problems most of his life,
cut off his ear with a razor, gave

it to a prostitute at a brothel,
consigned to a hospital

for his mental breakdown, seemed
okay for a while

until he shot himself in the chest
with a gun,

died a starving artist, but today
his painting The Starry Night

sells for a billion dollars.

Bob Boyd

I can understand this. Years back when I was on a dating app,
many women put a price tag on the cost of being with them,

as though they were high class commodities, and if you didn’t
have an exorbitant income, you were like a penniless pariah.

A man won’t get that kind of shallow, mercenary woman,
who overestimates her value, with an AI girlfriend.

She won’t care about your benjamins. She wouldn’t see
you as unworthy if you didn’t have a bloated bankroll.

Here’s my bottom like about this. I believe romantic love is
only for procreation, as it is with all the other species,

so I don’t think it matters whether you have a flesh and blood
girlfriend or AI girlfriend or, if imaginative, even a lifesize doll.

Besides despite all the potential complications and hassles
with a human woman,

romantic love is not going to last, whether through a break up
or the death of you or her.

And maybe, just maybe, one day I’ll follow suit and find the real
prize in an AI girlfriend instead of squandering

my heart and my money on an unpredictable human one. But
not just yet.

Bob Boyd

If I were a male beetle,
would I think some female beetles were hot?

And if I had to go far away, say hunting for food
for a long time,

would I get a dear John from an unfaithful female
beetle, maybe written on a leaf?

And if I had a lot of beetle possessions, would I
need a prenup if I married a female beetle?

I’ll probably never know the answers to any of
those silly questions,

but I imagine relationships would be less complicated,
were I a male beetle instead of a male human,

whose been with more women than he ever wanted
to be.

Bob Boyd

Some people and ufologists
believe aliens created us

as if we were no more than
human lab rats

as if we were no more than
test tube babies

I say bananas to that and
baloney too

maybe you’re an alien hybrid
and that works for you

but as a certified human being
I’m not believing it too

Bob Boyd

Some jump off buildings
some jump off bridges
some drown themselves
some shoot themselves
some hang themselves
some slice their wrists

so many people kill themselves
and some think they go to hell
as if they were deserving of
eternal damnation

I disagree with that
easy to condemn those driven
to such tragic extremes
especially those with chronic depression
and other mental health conditions

I say pray for them
in the afterlife wish them well
don’t condemn them to hell

I envision them in a healing place
filled with mercy and unconditional love
and I believe and trust that I am right
and that they are happy and well

Bob Boyd