On a busy Street in Sheffield, England
a man, brown hair, about 5 foot eight
medium build, wearing a beanie knit cap
stumbling and mumbling around
hardly about to walk, barely coherent
a policeman appears, talks to him
calm voice almost consoling
then he takes him away with two
other police, hopefully to get him help
if he is receptive to receiving help
the three police return and have a chat
properly and friendly with the YouTuber
who was videoing them and the man
two of the police are females, one a male
and the females are criminally pretty
I don’t know what they did with the man
nothing was said about him,
perhaps for legal, privacy reasons, but
I enjoyed hearing the British police talk
listening to their Queen’s English accents.

Bob Boyd

Fentanyl caused 199 deaths daily in 2023
over a quarter of a people died from it since 2021
probably none of them known by you or me
but what a goddamn shame all these people
have been literally executed by this demon drug
it’s easy to blow it off; they’re not you or me
but they’re somebody, once a child who
was held in a mother’s arms, an innocent babe
that had such promise for living a good life
it’s so sad and so tragic that that child
grew up to only to die from a drug
the promise gone, the lights out, to many
just another fentanyl statistic, nothing more
to some probably losers who got their due
but they were just people, like you and like me
who probably didn’t have the advantages
the genetics, the mental faculties, the luck
of millions of more fortunate others
like those born into near perfect lives
with excellent mental and physical health
great genetics, decent nurturing families
no horrendous tragedies that break them
and probably less breakable minds
my hope is in the afterlife those who
died from that murderous, demon-like drug
get a chase to do a redo for a better outcome
in the afterlife or back in this lesser life.

Bob Boyd

Once in a while, probably in weaker times,
I think about how nice it would be
to have the warmth of a woman in my life

when I write warmth, I mean the companionship
the words, the gestures, the endearments
that can bring some warmth into your heart

likened to how warmth in its true definition
can drive away the cold, like the right woman
can drive away the downsides of being alone

that feeling of how nice it would be to have
the warmth of a woman in my life doesn’t
last too long, and I make no attempts to

have a woman in my life because like a
rose has thorns, so can a relationship
that can make your heart bleed with sorrow

so I stick to my womanless, reclusive ways
writing poems, researching, gaining knowledge,
without any risks of putting my heart in jeopardy.

Bob Boyd

On the Art Bell show, a young woman who called in
said she’d like to be abducted by aliens
In so many words, Art said, be careful what you wish for
He went on to say some abductees have gotten PTSD
from being snatched out of their homes by aliens
and held captive in the UFO’s or elsewhere

One of the problems I have with these cases of alien abductions
is that they seem to be revealed under hypnosis
which I don’t see as reliable or as proof of abductions
people can be led in hypnotic states to believe what the
hypnotist leads them to believe

but there’s a man named Jim Sparks who supposedly
knew he was abducted for years without hypnosis
listening to him, he sounds quite creditable
but, still, he could be just another untruthful person
claiming he was abducted for whatever reasons

I’m on the fence about believing or not believing
in these alleged abductions despite similarities
one hears and reads about
In fact, I’d rather they were untrue and no aliens
were kidnapping people from their homes and
experimenting on them
obviously, that would be the best outcome.

Bob Boyd

Right from high school I dreamed of finding
the one, the soulmate, the perfect love for me

my dream was to meet her in high school
fall in love with her, get married

be the fairy tale happily ever after
instead I got the happily never after, lol

a while back I thought since many people
like me don’t find the one, the eternal soulmate
in this uncertain, often unlucky in love life

maybe they find their soulmates
in the glorious, unimaginable afterlife
now I’m not so sure, maybe romantic love is
superseded by unconditional love
in the unseeable, the unfathomable

I believe what Elizabeth Kubler Ross
said, “Look forward to your transition.
It’s the first time you will experience
unconditional love.”

I like the thought of that
I believe she and the NDEers – who
experienced what they call Source and the
unconditional love – are right

but if I had my choice, I’d rather be
with the soulmate never found in this life
with her finally in a heavenly paradise
heart aglow, souls in sync, happy forever
bored with each other, falling out of love …

never.

Bob Boyd

Mothers posing with dead babies
a photographic trend in late 1800s
but, alas, what a sad sight to see

families posing with dead grandparents,
fathers, mothers, children

sometimes dead pets too

a photographed last farewell
heartbreaking to imagine
how sorrowful
how painful

that last
captured goodbye
must have felt.

Bob Boyd

Base Camp Chris
a good and kindly guy

tells the best and strangest
hiking and camping stories

I listen to him often
because his unique stories on YouTube

sent to him by many
are so amazingly good

for example, see his frightening and
mysterious story about the Tree Bear.

Bob Boyd

At first, in love and in marriage
they’re loving
they’re caring
as long as

everything goes their way

but when love or marriage
goes astray

the wickedness in them
crawls out of the darkness

hidden in the shadows
of their souls

and they stalk
they harass
eventually they kill

the unfortunate women
who got tangled up

with what they thought
were suitably nice men

but, woe, they were so deceived
by deceptions and devilry

and now most of those women
who were only looking for love

are dead

murdered by monsters among men.

Bob Boyd

As you grow older

real older

you look around and many friends of
yesteryear and this year are dead

many generational icons are gone as well

if you live long enough, more of them are
on the other side, the deceased side, of life

few, like you, are left on the living side of life
for some, this generational shift from the living

to the dead
is extremely depressing

the world, the people they knew
gone forever

to where
no one really knows

despite the many who claim they
know who haven’t been dead

maybe those who’ve had
near death experiences, NDEers, know

seemingly having been dead temporarily

but many scientists disagree
and their scientific reasons have merit

and temporarily being dead isn’t
really dead, not having gone all the way

as for me, I think the NDEers have gotten a real peek
at where the dead friends and generational icons

have all gone.

Bob Boyd

In this world

too many young women
die young

I’m not meaning
from diseases
or accidents

I mean the ones
that die from murders
often committed by
husbands or boyfriends

like the 68-year-old ex husband
who stabbed his 71-year-old wife

to death with scissors at their
son’s gravesite

some are random
like a young woman

recently stabbed to death
on a subway by someone
she never knew

or the many murdered
by serial killers

this is the dark and ugly side of life
the life some say is beautiful

until something dark and ugly
happens to them.

Bob Boyd

I like the look of old stone churches
in England

standing strong for hundreds of years
splendid works of architecture

though ancient, to me they
look as good as new

better than the modern churches
made of wood

inside the stately wooden pews
and minster’s pulpit grace the interior

sadly many of these stone churches
have been abandoned

some of them are alleged to
have become haunted

some have been turned into
nightclubs

the worship, the prayers, the God
in them dead.

Bob Boyd

Dogman sightings
keep increasing
like a Dogman fever
a cryptid epidemic
but I have a hard time
believing in a beast
with a face like a dog
and a body like
a big muscled man
of course maybe the
saying nothing is
impossible applies
and dogmen sightings
are really increasing
especially in Michigan
and all over the U S of A
and there’s even a
website about them
Dogman Encounters.

Bob Boyd

Sea Monkeys
advertised on the
backs of comic books
long ago, they looked like
unique, exotic pets
little humanoid animals
that could even do tricks
maybe even be tamed
what a surprise,
a disappointment
to some, perhaps many,
when sea monkeys
looked nothing
like the pictures
in the comic books
and were only
brine shrimp.

Bob Boyd

Sometimes on my portable radio
I hear a children’s Christian program
Adventures in Odyssey
occasionally I’ve listened to it
despite being an old adult
it takes me back to days of innocence
when life was less complicated
when responsibilities were few
when I made less mistakes
and lived a far purer life
than in my misspent younger years
sixteen to twenty seven
and I find myself feeling a little
closer to maybe an idyllic heaven
despite listening to a radio program
designed for Christian children.

Bob Boyd

I spy two vultures gliding overhead in the sky
I wonder what is dead, what has died

I glance at the vultures again
gliding effortlessly, beautifully

like avian royalty gracing the blue sky
like princes among birds, regal and sublime

yes, they have a bad reputation as scavengers
flesh eaters of the dead

but today, here and now, in the sky above
gliding so gracefully

they look absolutely beautiful to me.

Bob Boyd