John Brennan (1945-1995)

Born inbred in September of 1945.
Died of Huntington’s disease in 1995.
I used to cry and pray to God and ask:
“Why did I have to be born inbred?”
“Why couldn’t I have had a normal healthy life?”
When I died, the inbred related deformities
Didn’t follow me to the other side,
And now I lead a normal, healthy life
In one of God’s many mansions.
And I understand why I was born inbred
For complicated reasons I cannot reveal.
Where I am now, the thoughts and
The words about it cannot come out to you.
I can say this. Despite the inbreeding,
And the suffering I endured on earth
I’m okay now and everything is wonderful.

Bob Boyd

Sweet Dream Antique Car

1956 Packard Caribbean Coupe
Classic car, hot vintage look
Dover White, Naples Orange
And Corsican Black colors
Creamsicle colors with a
Black trim highlight, so cool
Only 65,000 original miles
3 speed automatic, overdrive
8 cylinder powered engine
Creamsicle-colored upholstery
Only 263 produced back then
$39,900 justified price tag
Sweet dream antique car
Probably a great ride

Bob Boyd

News Fast

I must stop reading the news everyday
Too many people dying in awful ways
Too much bad and depressing news
A once powerhouse football player has ALS
A 5 year old child killed in an airborne bounce house
A pretty mother of two killed in a cycling competition
I’m beginning to feel as if I need a Godlike mind
To handle all the misery, warnings and woes
In the everyday bad news nowadays
Maybe it’s time to take a news fast

Bob Boyd

Shopping Therapy

Her husband thought she went shopping too much.
He didn’t realize to her it was like shopping therapy.
It filled some emptiness within, made her feel better.
And they had more than enough money to afford it.
And many in her position, women and men
Would be the same, like Christmas every day.

Some would say she is too materialistic
In her constant need to buy more stuff.
But she’s harming no one in her shopping sprees,
And as long as she isn’t breaking the bank,
And it makes her feel better, why not?
Were I her and money wasn’t a problem
I’d probably be doing the same.

I’d probably start with a giant aquarium
And homing pigeons galore flying in circles
Above a castle in the country, maybe with a moat.
And probably a hot trophy wife for appearances,
Who otherwise wouldn’t be with old, wizened me,
Too old and and not monied enough to afford her.

And some high dollar, coiffured, pedigree dogs,
Maybe a $10,000 pampered, pedigree cat.
Oh yeah, a personal chef and barber too,
But wait! Already I’m breaking the bank,
And this poem is not supposed to be about me.

Bob Boyd

The Cancer Plague

Seems every week something else gives you cancer
Seems this wretched disease keeps gaining ground
It’s like a never ending plague that keeps spreading
That kills over 600,000 people in the USA yearly
Tragically it’s even killing more young people now
And God Almighty why are some babies born with it
You’d think by now there’d be a cure for cancer
A pill or an injection or a procedure that could end it
At least progress is being made in the fight against it
Cancers that used to kill are now sent into remission
Still every week it seems something new causes it
And the grim reaper never had a better friend

Bob Boyd

A Woman Named Janice at Harris Teeter

He met an attractive woman named Janice
At the Pisgah Church Harris Teeter grocery store.
She was slim, comely, blonde hair, sweet smile.
The day was raining; lightning boomed in the sky.
She said she had taken a bus to get to the store
And would he be a gentleman and give her a ride home?
He complied, and after about twenty minutes she got out
In front of an eerie-looking cemetery.
Having heard about many urban legends,
He thought she’d be a ghost and vanish, but
Then he woke up and realized it was merely a dream.
The next day he went to Harris Teeter and saw Janice there.
When he told her about the dream, she said, “Is this a pick up line?”
She gave him a dismissive look and in a huff strolled away.
But then she came back laughing and said she had the same dream.
A romance ensued, and they got married in Harris Teeter.
But six months later, Janice died unexpectedly and is buried
In the cemetery he saw in the dream.

Bob Boyd

Hard Wired

Tired of women,
He became a monk
But he fought every
Day between prayers
His need for a woman
In his lonely life
He thought he could
Defeat what he was
Hardwired for
Despite his determined
Intentions in the end
He met a nun and
Both hardwired they
Renounced their holy vows
And took marriage ones

Bob Boyd

Moon Man

Full moons had a strange
lunar effect on him.
He wasn’t a werewolf.
He didn’t go bat crap crazy.
He didn’t go temporarily insane,
Or maybe he did a little.
When the moon was full he
claimed to have lived on it
In a long ago former life.
He said the moon had been
Populated millions of years
Ago by inhabitants like him.
He did look a little weird;
So it almost seemed true.
And during those full moons.
He would talk In a strange
language intermittently
Unlike any language on
earth which made you wonder.

Bob Boyd

Sad confessions of a Buddhist Rinpoche

Sexually abused as a child by monks
when he was a little child monk.
Said a Buddhist tried to kill him.
Described other Buddhism problems,
sounded like a forlorn Buddhist being.
Opened my eyes to the truthful fact
that Buddhism isn’t the exception
to child abuse and the imperfections
of all the sects, cults and religions.
This goes beyond the precepts
and the imperfections of them all.
We have to be our own spiritual
leaders and not be controlled by
all the rules or dismayed by
the corruption and bad leaders.

Bob Boyd

Victim

She loved to play the victim
When she screwed you over
She couldn’t take responsibility
For her repeated wrongdoings
Perhaps she couldn’t face
How messed up she was
And all the people who hated
Her because of her hateful ways
She’ll probably go to the grave
Thinking she was always right
Maybe when she dies and
Has the Life Review, she’ll wake
Up and see how she really was
Where she’ll go from there
Is anybody’s guess

Bob Boyd

“The Being of Light presents the dying with a panoramic review of everything they have ever done. That is, they relive every act they have ever done to other people and come away feeling that love is the most important thing in life.” (Dr. Raymond Moody)

Rasbora Heaven

Rasbora fish swimming joyfully
In my ten gallon aquarium,
Eighteen in a school of them.
I’d like to know if any thoughts
Come into their little heads,
Aside from mating and eating
And where they go when dead.
I’d hate to think they just die,
And that is the end of them,
As if they were unworthy of
Some kind of rasbora heaven.
Maybe the Hindus have it right
They reincarnate higher,
Maybe into a dog or a cat.
But rather than having to go
Through many incarnations
Some with joy some with strife
Repeatedly facing uncertainties
Maybe horrors and miseries
I’d rather they stayed as rasboras
And went to a rasbora heaven.

Bob Boyd

Ant Scout

The ant scout found the food source
In an old lady’s old-fashioned kitchen,
Some chocolate syrup the old lady spilled
Behind the plastic kitchen trash container.
Excited, the scout left the trail of pheromones
For legions of worker ants to follow
Back to the syrup and was hailed a hero.

Worker ants marshaled their legions in formation
And marched into the old lady’s house,
Salivating at the thought of consuming the syrup.
But the old lady spied the advance columns
And sprayed all the advancing ants to death.
The scout got blamed for the botched mission
And summarily got kicked out of the colony.

In a last chance attempt to regain some glory,
He vowed to get even with the dowdy old lady.
He snuck in her house while she was sleeping
Crawled up her leg and planned to bite her butt
Foolishly believing like a bull elephant shot to death
He could end her large, old life with that single bite.

But he was intercepted by the startled old lady,
Who caught him between her wrinkled fingers
And foiled his misguided, quixotic attempt with
A death squeeze by those trusty old fingers.

Bob Boyd

Luck of the Draw

She often wondered why she couldn’t have been born
Like her neighbor Jenny Lee who had everything,
Beautiful looks, a perfect body and oozing with charm,
Big boned, unattractive, and not acceptable to the in crowd,
She knew she was a better person than Jenny Lee,
But in the world she was born into that didn’t matter
If you didn’t have the superficial look and the right body.
Nobody asked her to dance at high school dances;
She was just another wallflower and she cried about that.
As she matured, she got over her envy and made do
With what nature had given her, and accepted her lot.
She also saw that with advantages come disadvantages,
And she made the best of her life and found happiness.

Bob Boyd

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