Radar speed sign on the road always clocked you
Past 35 miles an hour to keep you in check at 35.
Took it as a challenge, punched the gas pedal hard
Each time I sped past that freakin’ speed sign.
Personal best: Flew by it at 125 miles per hour.
Killed the sign with that record shattering ride.
The numbers spazzed out. The sign exploded.
Bob Boyd
Love songs blaring out of cars.
1957 Chevy bel airs with fins
And other flashy finned cars,
Prowling land sharks on tires,
Roaring and screeching rubber
Hot and smoking city streets,
Impressing gawking, teenage girls
Culminating in sweet, tender times.
Making out and petting in cars.
Romantic teenage wonderlands,
1950s cool summer nights.
Bob Boyd
At six-years-old
He hated his baby sister
He lost the attention
When she was born
She annoyed him
When she cried
And he was happy
When she died
Supposedly
Accidently
Smothered
To death by
A pet cat in her crib.
Bob Boyd
He was like her puppy.
She had him on a leash.
She issued him orders.
He obeyed them.
She was so beautiful
He couldn’t risk losing her.
So he did what she said,
Even though he knew he’d become
Subservient and emasculated
And no longer a real man.
He often wished he had the guts
To stand up to her and say no.
But she was too beautiful to defy.
So he kept being her puppy
Until she found a new pet.
Bob Boyd
Death has come for him.
He’s not scared.
He got too wasted.
He got too sick.
Drank too much.
Took too many drugs.
No family. No friends.
Nobody cares about him
No one is going to miss him.
Nobody knows his name.
He gasps his last breath
On that somber, November day,
Dead and homeless on a cold street.
Bob Boyd
Old people don’t climb trees
They can barely walk up steps
And it’s hard just to bend over
Or maintain their shaky balance
Instead they climb the years
Toward a higher destination
Beyond the aches and pains
Of their dwindling endtime lives
And for them just falling down
In a bathroom or on a floor
Is as deadly or more deadly
Than falling out of a tree
Besides they climbed many
Trees in their childhood years
When falls didn’t seem deadly
And climbing them was fun
Now they have to take it easy
Falls have become deadly
So they no longer climb trees
But hope to climb to heaven
Bob Boyd
In the summer of sixty-two
I protected and saved her
From that abusive monster
She foolishly fell in love with.
I put him where he deserved to be
Dead in the grave, finished forever.
But she testified against me,
Helped to put me in prison,
And found another monster
To use and batter her.
She wrote me in prison,
A tear-stained letter,
About her latest monster
And apologized to me.
I never wrote her back.
Bob Boyd
Loved the way you moved on the dance floor
When we were in our energetic twenties.
So young. So in love. So invincible. So forever.
There was nothing we couldn’t do,
No dreams we couldn’t dream.
We were going to stay young forever.
The dancing, the illusions and the dreams
All died when we turned a dismal seventy-two.
A terrible cancer took you away from me,
And I went out of my aged mind and died inside.
Bob Boyd
Married 30 years,
Different political affiliations.
Her a Democrat. Him a Republican.
All was well until she became woke
And was okay with open borders.
He tried to explain to her the evils
Of the open borders:
Sex trafficking many victims.
Fentanyl killing Americans.
South American gangs coming in
And causing widespread trouble.
Americans being raped and murdered.
Easy access for enemies of America.
He told her of all these infamous things.
Yet she refused to relinquish her support
For the cause of all these evils,
Too woke, too uncaring, and in denial.
He had to turn out the lights and say good night
To her and their marriage.
Bob Boyd
An old flame called him unexpectedly
40 years after they’d been together.
They were both 65 years old then.
Surprised and delighted to hear from her,
Hoping to rekindle that yesteryear love,
He excitedly agreed to meet her.
They met at a Brennen’s coffee shop,
Reminisced about good old times.
After they finished their coffees
And all the fond shared memories,
They left the coffee shop disappointed
And sadly went their separate ways.
The flames extinguished forever.
Different people from so long ago.
Bob Boyd