Humans a thousand years from now,
Unrecognizable compared to us,
Might look more like otherworldly aliens.
Might listen to incomprehensible music,
And speak a new English hard to understand,
Just as old English is hard for us to understand.
This is partly why there’s a theory that aliens
Are really future humans time traveling back to us,
Maybe to protect humanity from a nuclear holocaust.
Bob Boyd
Fall arrives. Insects chilled by the cold winds
Spend more time in their homes.
Leaves brighten showing off fall colors
Before they take their final leap into extinction,
Making way for the newborn spring incarnations.
Winds blow merrily heralding the fall advent.
Humans enjoy wearing their fall fashions.
Bob Boyd
Mary had nothing, grew up poor,
Found work where she could,
Mostly in low paying jobs.
Unlike her wealthier peers
Going on binges in colleges,
Mary never got drunk or drank
Anything but milk and colas.
Found a good man, a janitor.
Didn’t live the envied high life.
Never cared for all that.
Lived on a family income
Barely above the poverty line.
Found love and happiness
Many of her rich peers
With sky high incomes
Never had despite having
The fake finer things in life.
Bob Boyd
Growing older and older
Body breaking down
Bones becoming thinner
Muscles wasting away
Brain keeps shrinking
Testosterone and estrogen
Declining more and more
Senior moments increasing
Much more Forgetfulness
Alzheimer’s and dementia
Might be in your future
Falls more deadly
Could die from one
Seeing more doctors
Taking more pills
Maybe hospitalizations
Quality of life diminishing
Maybe assisted living
Maybe a nursing home
Maybe you’ll be lucky
Suffer no medical problems
And die in your sleep
Bob Boyd
Strolling through my old home town
Everything changed
No longer a peaceful, small city
Crowded streets
Backed up traffic
Horns blaring
Tensions rising
Overpopulated
Crime out of control
Gangs now
Never before
Too many people
Too much trouble
Bob Boyd
A Predatory Planet
My brother was a serial killer. He had no misgivings about it.
He said we’re living in a predatory planet. I’m an iconic symbol of it.
He told me I was an accessory to the planetary slaughters
With all the fish, animals and plant life I devoured every day.
He killed over twenty innocent, young women before I found out
And turned him into the authorities. Who ended him forever.
They fried him in the electric chair. They sizzled his infamy away.
I had no sorrow about his death. I’d disowned that monster long ago.
Bob Boyd
Seized with grief, he got into his car.
His wife of twenty years had left him.
His high school sweetheart, she
Said they’d be together forever.
Without her, he couldn’t go on.
He pressed the gas pedal to the floor.
The engine roared. The car lurched.
He raced over 100 miles an hour,
And he drove into a semi truck
And ended his grief and his life.
Bob Boyd
She’s crazy and dangerous
My friends told me
But she’s beautiful
I told them
She’ll wreck you and your life
They said
Yeah, but she’s worth the risk
I said
When I went out with her
She was sane and incredibly nice
You can’t believe everything you hear
I told myself
Three months later she attacked
Me with a butcher knife and
Nearly killed me
She went to jail
I went to the hospital
She got fifthteen years
I got a chopped off ear
Bob Boyd
She scaled the high steel fence
Into the dangerous lion enclosure.
Spectators gasped in horror
Knowing she was doomed to die.
The fierce lions roared warnings.
The wild-eyed woman roared too.
The lions thundered more roars
And approached the crazy woman
While she spoke gibberish to them.
The lions licked her face kissingly.
The woman licked their faces too,
Turned and waved a long goodbye
And climbed out of the enclosure.
Bob Boyd
The ancient rock
A thousand stories
It keeps to itself
Experts cannot unravel
These intriguing tales
They have no clue
It’s just an old rock
Nothing to say
They believe
Bob Boyd