Billions of people have lived and died
on this earth since it began.
My question is where have they all gone?
Are they packed like sardines in some
crowded heaven
or worse in an overpopulsted burning hell?
Is the afterlife infinitely spacious enough
that it can contain unlimited numbers of people
or, for convenience sake, do we just die
dead in the ground and become part of the earth?
Bob Boyd
She was so elegant
a real genteel lady
impeccably mannered
poised and refined
dainty and elegant
but oh my Almighty God
at the slightest affront
she shed the elegance
and she sure could curse.
Bob Boyd
The chicken is
merrily clucking away,
as if she were forever
as if she were dying never
not knowing she’s
a few clucks away
from her doomsday
her transition to somebody’s
dead chicken dinner.
Bob Boyd
The war drums are beating.
The soldiers are marching
the cadence of their boots
sounding on the ground.
The rulers are making speeches
to motivate the soldiers to fight,
the soldiers to die,
the wives and mothers to cry.
Bob Boyd
He was born into a family of Christians
with six generations of ministers.
He became a devout Christain as a kid,
dreamed of becoming a minister too.
Never missed a Sunday service,
taught Sunday School as a teenager.
He attended a Christian high school
and a prestigious Christian College,
became a minister at age 22.
He married a sweet Christian woman.
At first it was a heavenly union,
both devout followers of Christ.
But with the years, he became too
controlling of his obedient wife.
He kept her from friends and family
until she found love with another man,
an unintended extramarital affair.
He couldn’t allow her to embarrass him.
He became enraged and betrayed
his Christian faith and his ministry
by strangling his adulterous wife to death.
Bob Boyd
He aspired to be a gangster
started with petty theft
graduated to gang membership
extortion and grand theft
moved up in the ranks and
was promoted to a hitman
but when he was assigned his
first hit, he couldn’t do it
he didn’t have it in him
that fatal mistake ended him
he’s buried under a building
built a few months ago
in downtown Boston, Mass.
Bob Boyd
His dog always knew when he was
being taken to the veterinarian.
He’d whine and moan and always
tried to hide.
The man who owned the dog
was almost the same.
Although he didn’t try to hide
or whine and moan outwardly
he avoided going to a doctor
like his dog would have
if his dog had free will and
wasn’t forced to go.
Bob Boyd
My friend Benny was always lucky at playing poker;
he always won money at it.
Benny was lucky with women as well; he never seemed
to get rejected and always had girlfriends.
But though an otherwise nice guy, Benny cheated at poker,
and he cheated on women.
Benny sometimes played poker with dangerous men
and I thought one day he’d get caught cheating with them
and end up dead and buried somewhere, a missing person,
never found.
But Benny’s biggest mistake was cheating on a crazy woman
who sent him to his grave with a bullet in his head.
Bob Boyd
I never cared about climbing dangerous mountains.
or skydiving out of airplanes thousands of feet above ground.
In my view, life is risky enough without making it
even more risky.
To me, the only risk of my life worth taking has always
been risking it in defence of another.
But that’s just me and you might be different, savorng the thrills and finding inexpressible joy and excitement
in climbing dangerous mountains and jumping out of airplanes whereas I’ve always been too scared to do those things.
Bob Boyd
Time is like a lawnmower
the way it keeps mowing
down my days.
My life is like a large lawn
that is three fourths or more
mowed as of today, Saturday.
I can’t hear the hum of the mower
but I can feel the days being
mowed away.
Bob Boyd
I have old friends in the afterlife.
And I’m good with being dead like them.
I wholeheartedly welcome the Reaper
and look forward to joining those friends.
I have consumed more than enough
of the pleasures and the pains of this life.
I’ve had more than my allotted share.
So it’s easy for me to think this way,
and I can barely wait for my dying day.
Bob Boyd
I wake up this morning at 3 am.
I think to myself if I had a girlfriend
or a wife who slept with me,
that would probably be an annoyance
to them.
I see that as one of the many benefits
of living solo without a girlfriend or a wife.
Sure it can get lonely without a
significant other, but there are also benefits
that you don’t have when with another.
I feel blessed that I can see my situation
that way, and I greet another wonderful day.
Bob Boyd
Many are the breakups,
Many are the divorces
Few seem to be the
high school sweethearts
whose love lasts a lifetime.
Some grow tired of what
was the loves of their lives.
Some grow apart when
the excitement dies down.
A few have murdered their
once loves of their lives.
Blessed are those whose
love lasts.
Bob Boyd
He Heard strange hissing sounds coming from his barn,
Something paranormal in the night he wondered, scared.
The eerie sounds ceased, and he could not find the source.
Some kind of vanishing ghosts or worse?
Heard it again next night, brought a gun and a flashlight,
Heard a whooshing sound inside the barn,
Only wind blowing through an open window.
At last he found the source of the hissing sounds,
A proud barn owl looking straight at him.
Bob Boyd
As a tall, skinny teenage kid
I wanted to get body builder big
lifted weights, popped protein pills
did body building exercises
I read about in muscle mags
lots of bench presses and curls
I got stronger, muscles got bigger
but I never got body builder big
I didn’t know about genetics then
and nobody was taking steroids.
Bob Boyd
Poodle dogs are smart
they’re also a little crazy
I’ve seen tiny poodles
charge at bigger dogs
though I admire their bravery
I’m sure some have been
torn to pieces because of it.
Bob Boyd
I’ve always found
graveyards peaceful
maybe it’s because
nobody’s acting crazy
nobody’s making trouble
if only living people
could be as peaceful
as those who are dead.
Bob Boyd
Married, in her old age sex was painful,
the enjoyment became torture.
Her husband the same age and less
controlled by carnal urges,
and a kind and sensitive man
was perfectly okay with a platonic love.
And they both knew real true love is above
physical pleasures.
Their marriage became a sweet return
to innocence and a greater, lasting love.
Bob Boyd
On a hike with a friend
in a national park,
he barely saw it coming,
ten feet tall and translucent.
He couldn’t make out its face
but its body looked largely
human.
He sensed it was menacing,
ducked when it charged him
and his friend.
In a millesecond, it snatched
his friend out of this existence
and it and his friend vanished.
Now he’s a person of interest;
the police think he’s crazy
enough to have killed his friend
based on his insane alibi.
Bob Boyd
After years of marriage, they got bored with each other
but stayed together, better than being alone.
In an attempt to fill their empty lives, they ate a lot of comfort food, got overweight and unsightly.
Died miserable, unhappy, and unloved, like many other couples for whom love has run out.
Bob Boyd