they’d been nice quiet kids
fun and peaceful until
they moved to a bigger city
and they became thugs
the change was alarming
nice quiet kids gone so bad
merely from a change of cities
and troublemaking friends and
small time criminal influences
a little over a year later
both of them sent to prison
robbed and killed a man
nice quiet kids now felons
locked away forever
bob boyd
I’m a curiosity to my Siamese Fighting Fish.
At least he doesn’t want to fight me.
I wonder what he’s thinking.
I wonder if he has many, if any, thoughts.
Or if he’s a bit of a philosopher and
wonders if I’m some kind of a giant god
or an insignificant dolt who just feeds him.
Maybe he believes in reincarnation and
is sure someday he’ll be like me,
maybe feeding fish as well.
I’ll bet he doesn’t believe in hell.
Maybe when he’s resting in his stone hut
like a religious hermit, he’s meditating.
I wonder if he’s had a satori or two
or perhaps a samadhi Hindu-style.
Maybe a Christian mystical union
and he’s seen the Ruler of everything,
Or maybe his highs are merely as
simple as enjoying the food I feed him.
Bob Boyd
I see her looking at me
disdainfully.
I know her love for me
has drained out of her heart.
Just a year ago, she said
she’d never stop loving me.
Amazing how a little time
can change the course of love.
Now I don’t love her either;
I never really knew her.
It took time for her real self
to come out of her.
When it did, I couldn’t believe
all the dark things I saw.
She only wanted me for
the money I had inherited.
When the money ran out,
she had no more use for me.
I know she will leave me soon
to find someone with more money.
And I’m good with that, farewell
and don’t ever come back.
Bob Boyd
she never thought she’d get old
she had felt eternally youthful
and remarkably beautiful
until time began to erode
her youth and her looks
and fewer men noticed her
her mirror abandoned her
and make her look older
she tried botox treatments
and many surgical fixes
but her face and her body
still kept aging badly
the wrinkles and discomforts
kept increasing daily
but eventually she adapted
and finally aged gracefully
bob boyd
the fall leaves are leaping off the trees
maybe is their last hurrahs hurling into the air
a final gasp of freedom from being tied to trees
maybe the freedom for a few moments is worth
the suicidal leaps into the grounds and streets
maybe living a short but exciting life of glory
is worth that plunge to end seasonal bondage
bob boyd
he works in a factory
just like his father and his father’s father did.
he went to college, got a degree in English Lit,
couldn’t find a decent paying, prestigious job.
makes more operating a whining machine
that punches holes in metal incessantly.
dreams of becoming a famous writer,
writes books at night.
believes he has it in him to write a bestseller
that will be made into a blockbuster movie.
his books keep getting rejected by publishers
one editor wrote, “don’t quit your day job.”
he inhales the foul-smelling factory air,
suppresses the feelings of failure
and dreams of another life.
but feels trapped in the factory,
like his father and his father’s father did.
maybe factory work is in his blood
and he can’t get it out.
bob boyd
He was waiting for God to turn off his lights, tired of living, aging had reduced him
to a pill-dependant pulp.
He had no love left in his life. His lovers had died or left him.
He had nothing to live for. He lost his zest for living.
Confined to a wheelchair in an uncaring nursing home, he prayed everyday for God to end his dreary, pain-ridden existence.
He’d lived eighty and nine years, been enough, seen enough.
Before he reached an agonizing ninety years, mercy arrived, and God turned off his lights.
At first his world went dark. Then it lit up with unconditional love. And he found eternal peace, unconfined and forever loved and free.
Bob Boyd
it was real
it was hideous
it was coming after him
horrifying beyond imagination
seemingly unstoppable
seemingly demonic
the terror of all terrors
his crazy off her meds
ex wife gone bonkers
with an ax in her hand
and glowing red eyes
screaming like a banshee
hellbent on killing him
and sending him to hell
he went a little insane too
and quoted the exorcist
in the movie The Exorcist
he starting yelling
the power of Christ
compels you
the power of Christ
compels you
her glowing red eyes
turned angelic blue
she stopped screaming
dropped the ax
and said I love you
bob boyd
Taste with their feet
subsist on liquids only
have transparent wings
cold blooded species
need warmth to live
miniscule lifespans
live 15 to 29 days
I’m sad they don’t
live longer lives
as beautiful as
they are
the butterflies
Bob Boyd
You can’t trust the mainstream news anymore,
lies, misinformation and partisan biased,
brainwashing viewers, many are celebs.
It stuffs the brains of undiscerning viewers
with nonsensical and hateful untruths,
turns them into haters of whomever it demonizes
day in and day out ad nauseam.
The constant repetition of the lies
penetrate the minds of the believers
and turns them into left leaning shills.
It wasn’t that way when journalism was objective
and you could believe the mainstream news.
Bob Boyd
ungrateful
she never had any respect for my mind –
no appreciation for my intellect.
in the end before she left,
she no longer appreciated
my full and loving heart.
bob boyd
she just wanted a normal relationship
without a man mucking up her life.
she’d given men her best shot;
none of them ever worked out.
they lied, cheated, and failed her
despite her determined efforts
to make those relationships work.
after decades of lovelorn loves
she gave up at age seventy,
too fed up with the failings,
too fed up with irregular men.
bob boyd
born into a devout, catholic family,
he had divine religious advantages.
small wonder he was a devout kid
and knew one day he’d be a priest.
he received the body of Christ
in the Eucharist for twenty six years
before he became a catholic priest.
surrounded by all the catholic graces,
born to be a roman catholic priest,
how could he have gone so wrong
by molesting young, catholic boys?
he ended in prison, a convicted pedophile
in the other inmates glaring kill sights.
a dead man with a bullseye
on his once a pious priest back,
a year after his incarceration
he was murdered viciously in his cell
his legacy, a failed catholic priest.
bob boyd
they came through the walls,
reptilian-looking aliens,
a horrifying sight,
though only six-years-old
she was used to them.
they were her friends
and had empowered her
to be the next world leader.
she had the right intellect
and the finest implants
to be a young messiah
and win the world for them.
they charted out her path.
they cleared the way,
killed human obstacles
before they rose up.
the world was theirs
and she was one of them
inside the body of a little girl.
bob boyd
In high school girls called Mark ugly,
and he became less attractive when older,
too ugly for women to get a date he knew.
But when Mark won a million dollar lottery
suddenly, unexpectedly, he became handsome,
and beautiful women were all over him.
Funny how one’s fortunes can change
when it comes to one’s appearance to women.
Bob Boyd
A husband and wife team,
they were slick grifters
tricking people into believing
they were possessed or had ghosts.
They made a lot of money off their grift
pretending to be exorcists
and got a lot of publicity and
a book and a lucrative movie deal.
Their grift came to a horrifying end
when they messed with real demons
and tried their fake mumble jumble
and both got possessed.
It seemed maybe those demons
had some unexpected sense of justice
and kind of avenged all the wronged,
like the documentary portrayed it.
Bob Boyd
I never wanted to know when I was going to die.
Now an old man, I wouldn’t mind knowing
since I’ve reached seventy and nine years
and don’t give a damn about dying.
If I knew the time and the hour,
I could do some crazy things
and some sane things before my demise.
I could spend all that I have in my bank account,
maybe on a train trip across the country and
other things I wouldn’t spend money on now.
I could gorge myself on all the forbidden foods,
more chocolate, ice cream and pastries.
I could go out having had a good and
uninhibited time.
Bob Boyd
this life seems like a luck of the draw
what you are born with
what you are born into
where you are born
whether you are born into peace
or born into turmoil
whether your parents are poor and starving
or rich and well fed
whether they are unkind and abusive
whether they are kind and caring
whether you are born into a first world country
or third world country
whether you are born with everything
or born with nothing
sometimes i think it all sucks
this luck of the draw
and those who get stuck
with the short straw
and i yearn for a shangri-la
where everyone is equal
and nobody suffers
i hope it exists in the life
after this one if we
are all lucky.
bob boyd
they fell from space all over the world
world leaders and scientists amazed
considered them gifts from benevolent aliens
never had more beautiful orchids been seen
never had any been more sweet smelling
until the orchids turned into lethal weapons
and sprayed poison all over the earth
the beautiful became ugly and wicked
their lingering poisons lasted for centuries
killed every living human all over the world
bob boyd
“enjoy the hell of your own making,” she said.
after she got mad at him for breaking up with her.
unknown to him, that hell meant more
than just being without her.
she had an aunt who was a black magic witch.
she paid her a lot of money for a horrific spell.
he began having terrifying, demonic nightmares,
after one of those horrifying, hellish nights
he woke up possessed and crazy.
killed himself by jumping off a bridge
bob boyd