I went to a river deep in a forest
for some solitude and peace
sitting on the bank, I spied

a water fairy rising out of the
water without a single drop on her
surprisingly, I wasn’t frightened
she was too beautiful, too alluring,
to be afraid of

she asked with the sweetest
voice I had ever heard,
“Would you like riches galore?”
and she pulled a wand out of the air
and asked me the question again

you might think I was a fool to say no
and turn down riches galore
but I did, and she asked me two
more times

she drifted away to a man fishing on the
other side of the river, my mind
still blown by her beauty and her voice

I saw her talking to the man and
the man nodding his head, as she
pulled the wand out of the air

I almost regretted not accepting her gift
until she waved her wand and the man
burst into flames, smoke and ashes
in the air

shocked I got up and ran away from
the river, and I was thankful I remembered
a wise wizard’s words …

always be wary of water fairies.

Bob Boyd

When she lived in a house in Ireland, she woke up one day
and her house was sparkling clean

she told an elderly female neighbor about it
and the neighbor replied

you have the luck of the Irish
a brownie spirit is living in your home

you’ll probably never see him, but
when you wake up, your home will always be cleaned

just leave him a bowl of fresh cream or porridge
near the hearth each night, nothing more

and never … never offend him or treat him
like a hired hand

if you do so, he’ll leave, and you’ll never
have his help again

he desires to be your equal and not like
paid help

the bowl of fresh cream and porridge
are all he will require, nothing more

one day she got a fleeting glimpse of him
brown and hairy dressed in rags

feeling bad for him having to wear rags
she bought him some new clothes

after she went to bed and the brownie
came out

he saw the fresh new clothes next to the hearth
and was offended

though she meant well, she’d broken
the rule her neighbor told her about

the next morning when she woke up
her house was in disarray

the brownie who no longer cleaned her house
had gone away.

Bob Boyd

I saw you in a dream last night
though you died decades ago

a few nights ago in a dream
I felt an unseen woman’s arms around me

I know you always wanted to get back
together

and I have to ask, was the woman in the dream
holding me – you?

Bob Boyd

Her days have become downcast
her life has become bitter
her husband of 40 years has left her
she doesn’t know what she’ll do
how she’ll adapt to being alone
how she’ll live without love
her husband was her only friend
now she has no one to talk to
no one to commiserate with her
she feels like her life is over
feels like she is dying
goes to bed, eyes filled with tears
wakes up remembering he’s gone
has some coffee and chocolate
the sweet taste of the chocolate
perks her up, restarts her life
she remembers how her marriage
had been far from perfect
knows she’ll find a way to go on.

Bob Boyd

There are people who
create entities in their
minds called tulpas

they talk to them like
confidants and friends
real or imagined

as for me, I prefer
talking to God like that
real or imagined.

Bob Boyd

There’s too much deadly randomness
in this world

a woman taking a walk in a park in New York
a tree limb falls on her and kills her

people dying in random auto accidents
every day

a child playing in his parent’s home
killed by a stray by bullet from a street gun fight

a high school football player dies while playing football
an unknown, congenital heart problem

a young woman stabbed on a subway by a psychopath
she didn’t know

a middle age woman with two power dogs
one day mauled and murdered by them

an old person slips and falls in a bathroom
dies from the fall

a family having a peaceful lunch in a fast food restaurant
one of them shot to death in a mass shooting killing many

people who never thought what had randomly happened
to others would happen to them

and these unexpected, never imagined, random
deaths go on and on

how I hate the deadly randomness in this unpredictable
world.

Bob Boyd

Black, demon dog with red eyes that glowed like hellfire
burst into the Holy Trinity Church in Blythburg, England
with a clap of thunder in 1577

as the church steeple was struck by lightning and crashed
onto the church floor

the demon dog sped into the center aisle of the church, sunk his teeth into a man and a boy, killed both of them

his devilry done, blasted out of the church, clawed the door of the church on the way out, leaving scorch marks visible to this day.

Bob Boyd

A verse written about him back then:

All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.

Of course, the tale has probably been embellished, or maybe it hasn’t. 🙂

In Malaysia stands the statue of a Scottish man
on top of a Hindu temple next to Hindu deities

who is this Scot worthy of standing next to gods?
he was William Kellie-Smith who owned the

land the temple was built on and paid to have
the temple built.

he had it built for craftsman from Madras, India
he paid to build a castle for him in Malaysia

the craftsman wanted the temple for divine
protection when in 1918 several of them
died from the Spanish flu.

inside the temple, hangs a photo of Kellie
with a string of fresh flowers around it.

who’d have thought one would find a statue
of a Scotsman worthy of standing with gods
on top of a Hindu temple in Malaysia?

Bob Boyd

I’ve occasionally seen people on YouTube
who believe in fairies

curious to me that in these times some
people still believe in fairies

but I wonder if a collective belief
by thousands or more

could birth fairies into being, not unlike
how Tibetan monks can birth tulpas into being

with the powers of their meditation trained minds
and their vivid imaginations.

Bob Boyd

Rising from the body
looking down at it
up the tunnel of light
into the life review
a panoramic view
of the events of your life
good and not so good
a being, maybe God,
is there with you
it’s not punitive
it’s to help you grow
more spirituality
if you’re lucky
you reach Source
unconditional love
beyond words
beyond imagination
makes this world
seem dreamlike
not as real as there
if feels like your
true home and
you never want to
live that home
you come to
disappointed but
alive and changed
forever, no longer
fearful of death.

Bob Boyd