Month: July 2024

Joshua Boggs (1890-1918)

I was a logger who chopped down
Cedars, Sequoias, Firs, and Pines
In the forests of sunny California
I had a strong back and a temper
A love for cheap corn whiskey
And a cheating wife named Minnie
One day I got home from work early
My ax slung over my broad shoulder
Caught Minnie with another logger
Lost my temper and went crazy
Chopped them both to death
Pieces and blood in the bedroom
Fled California right after that
To Greensboro, North Carolina
Found work as a farm hand
Fooled around with farmer’s wife
When the farmer found out
He shot me in the legs when I ran
Tied me up and carried me to
A pig pen filled with hungry hogs
He smiled and said bon appetit
And fed me to the snorting hogs
A gruesome horrible death
That even I didn’t deserve

Bob Boyd

I decided to make my country more multicultural
I always liked the mix of many cultures
And the cultural exchanges it would bring
People from all over the world living harmoniously
I let all manner of people and beliefs
Into my welcoming country but
Hadn’t counted on some cultures
And their religions and beliefs
Being incompatible with mine
And wanting to change my country
And hating its beliefs and politics
And even though I was top tier elite
Better than the common populace
I was too proud to admit I was wrong
And risk blemishing my exalted status
My experiment failed, reaped with discord
And a divided country became
Crime ridden and filled with hate

Bob Boyd

Big crowds exciting for some
Smothering for others
I’m one of the others
And when I see big crowds
In videos or in photos
The herds of humans remind me
Of herds of animals and seem
Of no more significance
Then those herds of animals
In the greater scheme of things

Bob Boyd

Jake and johnny were hoodlums in high school
Bullied many weaker kids beat some to pulps
Stole from discount stores never got caught
Seemed like future gangsters in the making
After high school both became boys in blue
Channeled their aggressions into an occupation
Where they got paid for busting heads and kicking ass
Always got away with it thanks to the silent Blue Wall

Bob Boyd

So many find their soulmates
Years later a different story
Breakups and divorces
Forever lost loves
Instead of forever loves
Maybe Cupid is a trickster
When with the pull of his bow
He shoots fake love arrows
Into the hearts of so many

Bob Boyd

Boyfriend and girlfriend
A quiet night enjoying seafood
Eating delicious raw oysters
Boyfriend wakes up sick
Learns girlfriend is dead
Vibrio Vulnificus the killer
Virus that enters seafood
When raw or undercooked
The grim reaper a cruel fiend
Can strike many so randomly
And break a thousand hearts

Bob Boyd

Three-year-old twins dead today in LA,
Cute little boys named Jestine and josiah,
Alleged from drugs laced with fentanyl.
Mother seemed caring in photos of her and them;
Now facing charges of child abuse and murder.
Such a heartbreaking loss for those concerned,
News story uncertain if by negligence or design.
And why do things like this have to happen
To innocents on this often troubled planet?

Bob Boyd

His country had become fragmented
Vandals getting away with tearing up cities
Miscreants setting buildings on fire
And hurling objects at the police
The government mostly looking the other way
Criminals favored over heroic police
Fools crying for a defunding of them
Yet calling them crying when crime visited them
Other hypocrites backing defunding had their own security
District attorneys so soft on crime citizens in peril

His country’s borders unprotected
Hundreds of thousands of illegals pouring in
Administration breaking the law by letting them in
Murderers and rapists and terrorists in the mix
Illegal votes more important than citizen safety
Sex traffickers coming over the border
An American dream and big bucks for them
Tons of Fentanyl pouring in too addicting many
Illegal votes more important than them too
God save his fragmented screwed up country

Bob Boyd

She told him she was totally legal,
Older than she looked, really 18.
He didn’t want to believe otherwise,
Beautiful and built as well as she was.
They commenced their play in his car
And met many times after that.
He felt he found the love of his life
Until he learned she wasn’t legal.
Their relationship lasted a mere month.
She sought revenge when he left her,
A $5,000 fine and 2 to 20 years in jail.

Bob Boyd

Scorching torrid summer days,
Heat beating down unmercifully.
Air conditioners and fans struggling
Against the omnipresent, malignant rays.
Sweat pouring off humans and animals.
Heat dehydrating many older humans.
Animals survive, some old humans die.
Heard a song that said don’t let the sun
Catch you crying. Don’t let the sun burn
You to death either, and stay out of it.

Bob Boyd

Miss Mary was quite contrary
After she accidentally stepped on a spider
Scooped up its remains, buried it in her backyard
A tiny sign over its makeshift grave read Fred
Her sister visiting her, killed a fly on Mary’s screen door
Mary slapped her sister’s face and kicked her out of her house
She scrapped the fly off the screen and buried it next to Fred
A tiny sign over its makeshift grave read Susan
About three feet away Mary had another grave
Grass had grown over it and she had no sign above it
Her ex dead husband Larry she murdered in 1972

Bob Boyd

Victor was joy riding down Elm Street in Greensboro, NC.
A quiet, old Mexican man pulled in front of him by mistake.
Victor cut him off, pulled out his handgun and threatened him.
The quiet, old Mexican didn’t understand English but
Apologized in Spanish and drove away without a scene.
Victor, not too bright, thought the gentlemen insulted him.
Road raged, raced after him to pistol whip him for his slight.
The quiet, old Mexican man, a great, powerful Shaman,
Waved his hand and Victor and his car vanished.
Victor woke up in his car in a Harris Teeter parking lot
On Pisgah Church Road wondering if it was all a dream.

Bob Boyd

The act lasted for many years
The ventriloquist and the dummy
They had gigs coast to coast
Some in Europe and Canada
The dummy seemed as real as him
People swore it moved like a human
When the ventriloquist got old
And too feeble to do the show
The dummy began talking
Though the ventriloquist.

Bob Boyd

He led a lurid criminal life
Got away with many robberies
Lived a high life, many women
More robberies, more money
Never getting caught
Too smart for the police
Taunted them with letters
Boasting about his robberies
Got too brazen and overconfident
Caught and sentenced
Ten years in prison
Read about the Buddha there
Did his time in meditation
Released early, good behavior
Cut off all his golden locks
Made an ultimate vow
Became a Buddhist Monk
Somewhere in Tibet
Never heard of again
Attained Nirvana

Bob Boyd

He loved illegal drag racing
The high speed adrenal rushes
The risks of getting caught by the cops
The admiration of the teenage girls
Drove like an Indy 500 driver
Never lost a single street race
Never got caught by the cops
Ten years later too old for drag racing
Became a highway patrol officer
Raced to catch those illegal drag racers

Bob Boyd