Elderly and low income
They huddled under their blankets
In the freezing winter night
They couldn’t afford the high costs
of heating their small Apartment
Temperatures fell below zero
The blankets not enough to
Keep away the deadly cold
Hypothermia assailed them
In the morning they were dead
Bob Boyd
Elated in our youth
Every night a party
Always up for excitement
Seldom a care
Lived for the high times
And the bright lights
Of our exuberant happy days
Never saw the dark clouds
Or the thunder and lightning
Coming into our carefree lives
Until the nights of Kristallnacht
Shattered our happy days
And put out our lights
Bob Boyd
Is the afterlife compartmentalized?
Do we go to a place where people we knew and liked are?
Do others go to a place where people they knew and liked are?
Do we just reside in a place with people and angelic beings agreeable to us?
I can’t envision an afterlife where we would bump into disagreeable people or annoying strangers.
I can’t envision an afterlife where we would suffer divisive individuals or intolerable agitators.
But, let’s say if you led a wicked life and harmed many people,
Maybe you go to a place with the disagreeable, annoying, divisive, agitating people.
Maybe that would be your hell.
Bob Boyd
Like a princess in public
She fooled everyone
Like an evil witch in private
She fooled everyone
Until she got exposed
For who she really was
And she obliterated herself
From public view
Did a lot of self reflection
Got a lot of counseling
Eventually because
A bona fide princess
Publicly and privately
Bob Boyd
Many have seen him in near death experiences.
Many have felt his presence in prayers.
Some have been blessed with visions of him.
Some have had miraculous encounters with him
That irrevocably changed their lives forever.
Some have been healed of lifelong afflictions.
Some have been transformed from criminals to saints
Who dedicated their once self-destructive lives
To following him: Jesus The Christ, Light of the world.
Bob Boyd
My dog Bo has a sixth sense.
He sees what I cannot see
When he wags his tail
At something in the air
And acts as if petted.
I could only see what he saw
When I saw it clearly in a dream.
He saw my angelic, dead sister
Come down from the heavens,
A halo around her head,
To bless and protect both of us,
A guardian angel from above.
Bob Boyd
The birds no longer sing in the tree
Squirrels no longer frolic in it
Leaves have abandoned it
Nobody sits under it
Like an old person
It is withering and dying
Soon it will be dismembered
And carted away
Without any tears
Without a wake
A once beautiful tree
Bursting with life
Nevermore
Gone evermore
Bob Boyd
An old weather worn statue of the Virgin Mary
Stands in their backyard unattended,
Solitary with no saints there as friends,
I wonder if that statue is infused with Mary.
If so, is she sending prayers to heaven
For the good of them and the world?
Or is that statue of the Virgin Mary
Merely an old statue and nothing more.
Or is that life size replication of Mary
Like a backyard shrine fortifying their faith?
If so, I believe there’s some Godly good in that.
Bob Boyd
My girlfriend left
For another guy
My cat ran away
My dog died
My car broke down
I got laid off
From my job
Of twenty years
My doctor says
I’ve got cancer
And there is a
Monsoon outside
Bob Boyd
I’m leaving she said
I said okay
She said you’re not going to try to stop me
I said no you’re like a free agent
She said you’re not going to beg me to stay
I said I’m too proud to beg and too respectful
To try to talk you out of leaving
Baffled she decided to give us another chance
She decided to stay
Unbaffled I decided to leave
Bob Boyd