Month: March 2024

Thailand’s Sak Yant Tattoo Festival

An hour west of Bangkok
Sak Yant animal spirit tattoos
Administered by Buddhist Monks.
Tranced devotees run like crazed animals,
Growling and gesturing, newborn beasts
Through crowds of thousands upon thousands
To the front of the astonished crowds
Captured, restrained by handlers
Stabilized by the Buddhist monks.
Is it as claimed the cleansing of Karma
Manifesting as spirit animals
Or crazed imaginations run wild?
Whatever the reason, it’s a bizarre sight.
You will never forget once you’ve seen it.

Bob Boyd

Two Summers and a Fairy Tale

I knew you for two summers, met you at a teenage dance.
We danced to the song Sixteen Candles, and with each step
We became more enamored, knew we’d be a couple.
Teenagers we fell in love, planned to marry when older,
Vowed we’d be together forever, prince and princess, the fairy tale.
I loved you so much it was like I was living in a heavenly dream 24/7.
But when when the two summers became chilled by ill-fated fall winds,
You were untrue, and the heavenly dream became a heartbreaking reality.
The sun hid its tears behind darkening clouds.
The moon turned blue in the dismal night.
And I, heart-wounded prince, whose vow of love ever true
Couldn’t believe the princess killed the fairy tale,
And I could no longer be with you.

Bob Boyd

Four Young Girls from Birmingham

September 15, 1963 bombed to death in the 16th Street Baptist Church In Birmingham:
Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14) Carol Denise McNair (11).
I’ve seen their photos, read their stories – long ago,
Bright futures awaited those innocent, young girls.
Reading about them, tears fell. It was all so heartbreakingly sad.
Soulless monsters, the killers didn’t seem to care;
They didn’t seem contrite and ashamed, as they should have been.
Wondered how God could have let that happen, and in the sanctity of a church.
The only way I can reconcile their awful, unjust fates
Is that surely God must have needed four more angels in heaven.
Never forget those four young girls from Birmingham.

Bob Boyd

The Wooing of an Inscrutable Woman

What is it going to take to woo this inscrutable woman?
Am I going to have to crawl over a hundred miles of broken glass?
Or swim the seven seas seventeen times?
Or like a gladiator of old, fight off hundreds of lions in a coliseum?
Or scale Mount Everest ten thousand times?
Good God in heaven, what on earth is it going to take?
In an attempt to make her favor sweeter,
I think I’ll start with some chocolate mousse from Harris Teeter.

Bob Boyd

8th Century Chinese Poetry

I love 8th century Chinese poetry.
I even like their poets’ names like Li Po and Wang Wei.
They sound so cool and so exotic to me.
Those poets liked things like jade — in abundance;
They seemed to like it more than we like gold.
They liked oriole birds, and if you see one, you’ll know why
And there are eight species in the US and in Canada.
They loved the word crystalline, as in crystalline water.
In many ways their poetry is close to peerless,
Their use of imagery is phenomenal and sublime.
All of this amazes me because it was written so long ago.
And by that way, I’m not talking reading these poems
In Chinese. I know nothing of Mandarin, and I can’t
Speak Cantonese. Nor any of the hundreds of
dialects that are considered Chinese.

Bob Boyd

Coming and Going

Some come into this world suffering
all manner of medical conditions
out of the womb.

Most go out of this world suffering
dementia, cancers, other medical
conditions into the grave.

Why all this suffering? Where’s the love?
I swear by heaven above, if I were in
charge of the here and now, the

comings and goings, nobody
would ever suffer on the way in
or the way out.

Bob Boyd

Luckless, loveless Old Man Lament

As a luckless old man ten unsteady steps away being in the obits,
I’ve given up on the ship I’ve waited for all my life to come in.
I think it’s docked forever in Singapore or at the bottom of the Bering Straits.
The only ships I see are those that always pass me in the night.
I sit here marooned in a beggar broke, loveless unshipworthy life.
Almost won the lottery, 10 million, but somehow the ticket got lost.
Had what I thought was the love of my life, Daisy Bobby Sue Mae,
Didn’t know she was half crazy and crazier about the monied life.
She left me when she somehow got flush with cash and bought
a BMW, designer clothes, diamond rings and a fancy pants gigolo.
I know what you’re thinking.

Bob Boyd

A Tangled Life

He lead a tangled life,
A miscreant in high school,
A troublemaker in the military,
A criminal back in the real world.
Then as an incarcerated outcast
Had an epiphany in solitary that
Untangled his tangled life.
Saw he was the architect
Of his destructive behaviors.
Reformed and rebuilt himself
Into a better benevolent man.
His troubled life vanished
like dark clouds after a storm.
Spent the rest of his days
In compassionate service to others.

Bob Boyd

Anu

When Anu was in the highest heaven
I was waiting in the wings of the ethers
To be born.
Though there a thousand years
passes in a millisecond,
Trillions of those is a long time to wait
To be born.
Soon I’ll die and go back into the ethers.
Will I have earned heaven
or liberation from the wheel?
Or will I be back in the ethers waiting
To be born?
Whatever the outcome, I’ll be
Better off than Anu. No longer
In the highest heavens, he’s
Dead and gone.

Bob Boyd

The Bad Boy of Religion

The bane of Heresiologists
The scourge of Polemicists
Even Peter didn’t like me
He wouldn’t take a bribe
I was formidable
I was a sorcerer
I was a magician
I could levitate
I could fly
I was the bad boy
Of religion and I
Never knew why
They said I was
Malevolent
I said Nobody’s
Perfect we all
have our
Imperfections
In Rome I
Was redeemed
And deified
Name’s Simon
You probably
Know the rest

Bob Boyd

Amazing Woman at Harris Teeter

She works making pizza at
Lawndale Harris Teeter,
Friendly, helpful, compassionate,
Exceptionally nice.
Survivor of cancer three times,
Now in remission.
Fiance got cancer too, the
Cancer ended his life.
So terribly heartbreaking, hard to
Imagine coping with the loss.
She has a strong, brave spirit,
And a beautiful disposition.
Awes me how despite the cancers
And her fiance’s death,
She still smiles and stays strong
And exceptionally nice.
I’m so impressed with this amazing
Woman at Harris Teeter,
Hope she has a long and happy life
And never gets cancer again.

Bob Boyd

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