Poems by Bob Boyd

From Woburn, Mass, a small city, in 1964 Joe Drew joined the Marines,
The few, the proud, the brave sent him to the front lines in Viet Nam.
A good, gentle guy, never harmed anyone with words or fists.
Often thought, Joe why … why … why you, the nonviolent one?
Concluded gentle Joe probably felt he wasn’t manly enough,
And the Marines made manly men out of gentle teenage boys.
I’ll never forget Joe Drew, goodhearted, tender soul, great guy.
Joe came back from Nam in a body bag, first in Woburn.
Tears rained all over the city, one of our own down forever.
How I wish Joe never joined the marines and went to Nam.
A nicer guy there never was. If when I die, I wouldn’t be
Surprised if I meet an angel in the afterlife … Joe Drew.

Bob Boyd

A contrary girlfriend named Milly
Who was often a tad too silly.
Said I acted like a teenage girl
Though I didn’t my temper unfurl
Her insult made my mind so hazy
Left her for the crazier Daisy.

Bob Boyd

The sun tearfully sets in the horizon
The moon cries in the lonely night
The world pines over your departure
I stand at your grave, eyes full of tears
Feeling broken hearted and forsaken
If only you’d given life another chance

Bob Boyd

Remembering you with tears my eyes misted
was saddened to learn you had 52 years only.
You should have had at least 70 or more.
Never learned what sent you into the afterlife.
Your nicotine decades long addiction, I suspected.
You always smoked too much, worried me.
But maybe you hit the afterlife lottery, leaving
sooner, freed from the ravages of aging,
and I’ve no doubt you’re in a heaven. And
just maybe … we’ll meet again.

Bob Boyd

The need for Romantic Love plagues me
despite how hard I try to repress it.
It always reemerges in loneliness.
And the need for romantic love
and female companionship
takes me captive again.

Bob Boyd

We rode on crystalline unicorns in the afterlife, the unconditional love and the bliss mind blowing beyond words, beyond imagination, beyond anything one can experience in the transient days of impermanent, earthly life. Me temporarily only, an NDE tourist, her, Brianna, luckier, a permanent resident. Bliss beyond measure as we gallop through euphoric Elysian fields, Brianna, my newly discovered soulmate.

Now I know why I never found love true In my earthly existence of near misses. I needed to die to finally find her, not only the woman of my dreams, but the one I’d seen in my dreams before the car wreck that killed me temporarily. And though I miss her I know she’ll wait for me until I die permanently.

Bob Boyd

This passing parade of people
you see throughout your life,
some you love, some you hate,
some you barely know.
Some are strangers passing by,
some linger then say goodbye.
Of the many in that parade,
few remain. The rest are
as if dead, gone from
your life forever,
returning never.

Bob Boyd

Met you in a dream.
You were so real.
Fell in love with you.
How could that be?
Didn’t know if I was
dreaming or awake.
Woke up momentarily
wondering if our
love was true.
Then, sadly, I knew
it was just a dream
But O how powerful
the love was.
Will we meet
again tonight?

Bob Boyd

Robins scatter on the lawn as I walk by.
Why so afraid? I mean no harm.

Soon they fly off, as I wish I could
Make them see I’m a friend not a foe.

But I understand as little prey birds
They have to always be afraid

Of big human monsters like me.
And, honestly, I’d be the same,

Were I a little prey bird that
Could be crushed by a hawk,

Or killed by a big human monster
Unlike me.

Bob Boyd

Desiree, O Desiree there’s never been a woman like you,
not even the Greek goddess Aphrodite could compare.
Sometimes I wonder if you’re an ancient goddess too,
sent from Mount Olympus to an undeserving mortal like me.
And I wonder why this insignificant mortal came to be
with a goddess among women like you, Desiree.

Maybe Zeus sent you down to me for the time
I saved that Greek kid from a bully in DC.
Maybe he was Zeus’s son sent from
Mount Olympus for a mortal woman who,
for whatever mysterious reasons, deserved to
be with a god among mortal men.

Like ancient times, maybe ancient Greek gods
still intervene in the affairs and romances
of mortal women and men.
Maybe like you, Desiree, those Greek
gods are incomparably, mind-blowingly real.

Bob Boyd

Free verse poems

In Memory of Joe Drew

Milly and Daisy

Forsaken

Remembering Ruth

Held Captive by Romantic Love

Crystalline Unicorns

The Parade

Dream Love

Robins

Desiree O Desiree