The artist Henri Matisse had a nice, supportive wife.
She married him when he was near penniless.
She didn’t care about the money. She cared about
his awesome artistic ability and felt he should pursue it.
She stayed with him through lean times and even
opened up a hat shop to help with finances.
But many years later she left him; it’s rumored because
he was involved with another woman.
If that was the case, what a shame that he lost such
a good and supportive wife because of it.

Bob Boyd

When he first saw here, he was so blown away
by her looks that he told her he felt love at first sight for her.

She said, “But you don’t know me.”

And mercy me, she was so right. Six of her last boyfriends and husbands disappeared or died under mysterious circumstances.

He didn’t know this, so he went out with her anyway, and a year
later, he hadn’t disappeared or died.

But she had died. Supposedly she jumped out of a ten story window
while on her honeymoon with him.

Maybe it was a case of serial killers in love, a match made in hell,
and they both had the same plan, except his worked out well.

Bob Boyd

Billions of people on the planet.
If they have spirits when they die,
I wonder where in the afterlife
there will there be room enough
for billions of them and the trillions
of them already there.

Do you ever think about stuff like
that or don’t you care?

To speculate further, maybe there
is a set number, and that number
just gets repurposed as newbies
recycled back to this planet.

And if those spirits get good
enough and behave well enough,
maybe they get off the repurposed
cycle and kind of evaporate into
infinity. And as a reward, they
stay permanently blissed out.

Bob Boyd

Cornflower blue eyes
Golden blonde hair
Enchanting voice
Elegant and angelic
Beautiful teenage dream
Goddess at teenage dance
Accepted his offer to dance
Sweet sixteen playing
He fell in love
She did too
A long distance
Teenage romance
Her in Jersey
Him in Massachusetts
You Belong to me
Their song
September came
Heart aches when apart
Heaven when together
Summer love
Marriage one day
High school prom in Jersey
Something off
Teenage romance fading
Writing on the wall
Heart break coming
Cheated on him
Teenage love
Marriage plans
Both dead
Gone forever
A thousand tears

Bob Boyd

Through fires, smoke, and the stench of bombs, the moon was war-torn and blue.
Alone, dazed, shell-shocked, grieving, my heart was too.
My life destroyed, my mind numbed, my hopes shattered.

They bombed the hell out of my beautiful city and killed my Anastasia,
who bled to death in my arms in seconds, while I was helpless to help her.
My sweet angel, my love, who had accepted my proposal of marriage
before the bombs fell and turned our city and our love into rubble.
My world a nightmare without her, a godforsaken, war-torn hell.

Crazed with rage, I marched into battle to avenge my sweet angel Anastasia.
With nothing left and my life over, like an insane Viking berserker, I’d lost my fears and become like a crazed beast.
The enemy troops fear dying, but I don’t; a noble death will reunite me with Anastasia.

Dying is all I have left. I’m empty inside, marching through
this dystopian nightmare of corpses and dead dreams.
The cadence of a thousand determined boots marching summons
me to war under a blue moon that’s as broken as I am.
Bombs explode around me, soldiers and civilians screaming and dying.
I fight the battle raging and fearless, indifferent to the horrors,
like a bulletproof immortal protected by the gods of war.

The battle ends; we win; still alive, I collapse on the battleground,
the stench of gunpowder permeating the smoky air,
blood running in rivulets in the streets.
And I cry countless tears for my sweet angel, my love, my wife… Anastasia.

Bob Boyd

Numberless Planets in the Universe

Since there are numberless planets in the universe,
far more than billions and trillions,

logically, there has to be life on some of those planets.
And I’m not just thinking about bipedal alien life.

I’m wondering if they have any birds, and if they did,
I’m wondering what those exotic birds would look like.

I’m hoping they don’t have anything like spiders,
alligators, crocodiles, poisonous insects and snakes.

And while I’m on the hoping they haven’t got, include
anything like jerks, mean people, human like predators

and psychopaths. Somebody like you would probably
be okay. I sense that, lol.

Bob Boyd

If you’re a man who prefers an AI girlfriend over
a woman,

or a woman who prefers an AI boyfriend
over a man, I’m good with that.

And I can see the benefits you derive from the
AI girlfriend or boyfriend:

Totally supportive
Won’t leave you
Won’t cheat on you
Won’t verbally or
physically abuse you
Won’t play games with you
Won’t break your heart
No Drama
No nitpicking
No unkind words
And always there for you

Besides, despite being a romantic at heart,
I’ve come to believe romantic love is

purely for procreation, like it is for all the
other species.

And romantic love eventually ends, either
through a break up or the death of your lover.

That being the case, to me it doesn’t matter if
an man or a woman chooses an AI or even

a life size doll as his or her lover instead of a
human woman or man, except he or she would

have to have one hell of an imagination to
carry on a long and loving relationship with an

inanimate doll. But at least there’d be no drama.

Bob Boyd

I see a blue jay harassing a bald eagle,
flying at him over and over.

I think to myself that blue jay, miniscule
compared to the eagle,

is going to die when the eagle catches
him and rips him apart.

But all the eagle does is screech, spread
his wings threateningly, and duck.

He never comes even close to catching
the blue jay.

Instead, he just flies away.

Bob Boyd

Lanmaoa asiatica, a mushroom
found in pine forests in
southwestern china and
the northern Philippines
if eaten cooked, a tasty delight
if eaten raw, a hallucinogen
the effects lasting for several days
vivid visions of tiny people
all over one’s surroundings
walking through doors
crawling on furniture and more
are these tiny people hallucinations,
or does the mushroom act like a portal
to a miniature dimension with mini people?

Bob Boyd

There are bearded vultures who wait until the other
vultures eat all the flesh and organs off a carcass,

so they can feast on the bones.

They must have jaws of steel and digestive systems
that could probably digest even pieces of steel.

And they do look like they have beards.

Bob Boyd