I don’t like how in this transitory life that
in a millisecond everything can go awry.
No matter how well you planned, how well
you avoided dangerous situations,
bad things can happen to you.
A bad thing could be as random as
a heavy tree branch falling on you in a park,
killing you instantly.
Or shot to death along with others
by a mass murderer while sitting in a
fast food restaurant enjoying a meal.
Or despite all your healthy practices,
the right foods, exercise, trim body,
a deadly cancer or a fatal heart attack.
In truth, our lives hang on a thread
that can snap at any second and
put us in the ground dead and gone.
I don’t like the uncertainty of that,
and I think you don’t either.

Bob Boyd

After she graduated from the U. of Mass,
Lily decided to travel alone to India.
She was seeking enlightened truth.
She’d read the Bhagavad Gita and
other Hindu texts and books about
Hindu saints, sadhus, and gurus.
Lily practiced meditation and yoga
from what she’d learned in books.
She wanted to find an authentic
Hindu spiritual master who
could get her off the wheel of rebirths
before the end of her life.
She trekked to the Ganges, saw
many amazing and sacred sites.
But didn’t find what she considered
a real and pure Hindu saint.
She found only con artist fakes
dressed like holy men and sadhus.
A Hindu woman told her that
the saints were hiding in the Himalayas.
So she traveled to the Himalayas and
wrote a friend that she’d found her guru.
A month later, she vanished completely.
After many searches and investigations
her body was found strangled to death,
the killer or killers never found.
The locals thought they were remnants of
Thuggee thugs who strangled to death
thousands of travelers in the 18th century
as sacrifices to the goddess Kali.

Bob Boyd

She’d been a glamorous movie star
beautiful in her youth and into her sixties
blonde hair, blue eyes, trim and lovely body
at 71 years of age she was diagnosed
with an ominous, spreading cancer
for reasons unclear and risky
she chose to forego chemotherapy
at age 72, all that she had been
was gone forever, except for
her movies and cinematic fame

Bob Boyd

He lifted weights all his life
got super strong
pumped his muscles
up to the max
thought he’d lift heavy
all his life
joint problems in his 50s
a back injury in his 60s
other injuries too
now he can’t lift heavy
lost lots of muscle mass
has heart problems
had cancer too
works out light now
but at least he’s
still working out.

Bob Boyd

Your life is great
nice wife, good job,
enough money

perfect health,
no meds,
feeling great

your future bright
and sunny

a car accident
a heart attack
a job loss
a divorce
a death

in a millisecond.

Bob Boyd

Dresses modestly, looks great
without showing a lot of skin,
doesn’t do drugs or get drunk.

Doesn’t use the word fuck
to try to seem modern,
better mannered than that

Doesn’t take off her clothes
on websites and compromise
her morals for ill gotten dollars.

Doesn’t put a price tag on how
much money a man must make
to get a date with her on an app.

Doesn’t mind being called a lady
or look down on women who
are stay at home mothers.

If you’re lucky enough to
be her boyfriend or her husband,
she won’t be your submissive.

She will be supportive but also
your 50/50 loving equal
and always there for you.

She’s an old fashion woman,
but I don’t think you could do
better than her for a girlfriend
or a wife.

Bob Boyd

His friends warned him,
said she wasn’t right in the head.
He didn’t give a damn about what they said
because he wasn’t right in the head either,
and they had a love that lasted all their lives.

Bob Boyd

She watched them lower her dead baby in his little casket
into the cold ground.
Tears rained from her eyes, her heart forever broken,
her life over.
In that moment, on that day, she made a life changing
decision.
After the funeral, she dined at the most expensive
restaurant in town, like a man on death row’s last meal.
When she finished the expensive, fancy meal,
she drove to the high bridge over the raging river.
She parked her car at the beginning of the long bridge,
shuffled as if in a trance to the middle of it,
climbed on top of the safety rails, leaped into
the deep waters and drowned to death to be with her baby.

Bob Boyd

Dawn alighted
clouds glowed
birds sang
winds sighed
earth awakened
rivers paused
trumpets blasted
angels appeared
out of the clouds
and He descended.

Bob Boyd

On the day she was leaving
his heart shattered, tears streaming,
he left for work without saying goodbye.

When he knew her love for him had waned,
and she began treated him disrespectfully,
he said no one is making you stay here;
you can leave anytime you want.
The next day she left him with no regrets.

Although he knew her leaving him
was for the absolute best,
he hated her for a year after that.

Mercifully, at the end of that year,
the hate drained out of his healed heart
and he was free of his unhealthy loathing.

Bob Boyd