See that singing bird
happy as a lark
as if not a care?
but unseen
perhaps unknown
by most people
many predators
are lurking
are waiting
to get a
piece of him.

Bob Boyd

At first, for many life
it’s optimistically great
few problems, if any
the future full of possibilities
death not even one of them
at least not for most

even though death is waiting
silently, menacingly,
for the opportune moment
to pounce upon them
seize their temporary existences

no matter how long they live
or what they accomplish
in their fragile lives
it’s all a losing proposition
death prevails in the end.

Bob Boyd

They’re the bane of bees, the Japanese Hornet
one can kill 40 European bees in a minute
30 can kill a colony of them in about 3 hours
they decapitate and dismember the bees
fly away with thoraxes, larvae and honey

but they cannot easily decimate
the intrepid, inventive Japanese bees
when a Japanese Hornet flies to the hive
of the Japanese bees, he spies a few bees
hovering around the outside of the hive

decoys, they lure the hornet into the hive
where the entire colony waits, still as death
until the hornet seizes one of the decoys
then the entire colony seizes the hornet

traps it inside a moving ball of them
beat their wings to increase the heat
to a torrid 115 F (45 C) and literally
bake the Japanese Hornet to death
inside the swarming ball of doom
the scout dead, the colony saved.

Bob Boyd

Went to a local pet store
part of a huge chain of stores across the US

to buy a betta fish
it was a sad sight to see

all the bettas in small plastic cups
not much bigger than a coffee cup

most were listless, a few
looked close to dying

it was as if they were in
mini plastic gulags

betta fish shouldn’t be kept
in small plastic cups

barely deeper than a few inches
it’s a sad sight to see

I bought a female betta fish
they’re not as popular as

the more beautiful males
that most people buy

but that is partly why I bought
a female betta

the other reason is they don’t
sell as well

thus, the females are kept
in those plastic gulags longer

and I suspect some are
never sold and die in them

to buy a betta fish is to liberate it
from what is akin to

a human having to live in the small
confines of a closet

it’s exhilarating to watch the betta
when it is put into a 5 gallon aquarium

and tastes the freedom of all the
open space

and swims around unimpeded by
its former mini plastic cell

exploring its new home
even inside the small cave ornament

bettas love those cave ornaments
like retreats for them

for me it’s was a high
seeing that fish freed

from the inhumane conditions
it was stuffed in at the pet store

as bettas are in pet stores
all over America

it’s a sad sight to see.

Bob Boyd

She was the first cat sent into space
sent there by the French
on October 18th, 1963
electrodes implanted in her skull
to monitor her neurological activity
during the space flight
Felicette spent 13 minutes in space
came down in the cone of a rocket
with a parachute attached
and survived the flight
sadly, tragically, for Fellicette
two months later she was
put to death
so her brain could be studied
I ask you, was that any way to treat the
first space cadet cat?

Bob Boyd

A woman’s beauty is like
a candle

that burns steady and bright in a
woman’s youth

and begins to burn out as she grows
older

until, sadly, it eventually flickers
one last time …

and goes out forever

but I wish it could last forever
and didn’t fade like flowers

maybe it blossoms again in the afterlife
maybe women are beautiful there forever

regardless of whether or not they
were beautiful on earth.

Bob Boyd

The older you grow the more of your
life begins to disappear

as if some events never happened

your memory grows dim about
many of these events in your life

like memories of when you were a child

when you grow even older, it might surprise
you how many of the events have faded

and disappeared completely

erased from your mind
as if they never happened.

Bob Boyd

She wondered if he’d love her when she
was old and no longer beautiful

sadly he was gone long
before she got old

he cheated on her
she left him

when she got old and
no longer beautiful

alone, she never found
a man to stay with her

she didn’t have the luck
to find the right one

but it no longer matter
she had no desire to

be with or please an
unpredictable man

she was content being
by herself and free

she had enough happiness
in her religion

her church friends
and her God.

Bob Boyd

Recently, a random raccoon inexplicably fell
through the roof of a package store

and got into the liqueur

he drank to extreme excess, one hell of a bender
broken liqueur bottles all over the floor –

10 or more

streams of the liqueur spread all about
the store a chaotic mess

the raccoon wasted

drunk as a skunk, he passed out
face planted on the bathroom floor

apparently he has a drinking problem
that only a …

come-to-jesus moment can cure.

Bob Boyd

It begins like a beautiful dream
that you could dream forever
but at some point it morphs into
a horrible nightmare you
want to end

if you’re at all introspective, you
wonder how could that dream
have become a nightmare

and at some point you realise
you’ll never be able to get that
dream back

and usually you end the
dream turned nightmare
forever

sadly, so many of those dreams
the ideal romantic partners
become waking nightmares.

Bob Boyd

If a butterfly has an awareness of time,
I wonder if its life of only weeks
feels the same as a human’s life
of years?

One thing I know; a butterfly has far
more predators than a human

birds, reptiles, amphibians and
some insects

essentially, we, assuming you are
human too, 🙂

have only other humans to worry
about killing us

so a butterfly’s life could
be less than weeks

whereas, a human has a better
chance of living a full life

except for predatory disases
that stalk and kill many of us

some of us living less days than
butterflies

and probably without an awareness
of time in those drastically
shortened lifes

in that regard, I believe
those that live days or

less than a few weeks
have the same lack of

an awareness of time
that I believe a butterfly
does.

Bob Boyd

A 19-year-old man in Brazil named Gerson who had
mental health problems and a love of big cats

snuck into a lion enclosure in a park in Brazil called
Parque Zoobotanico Arruda Camara (Bica Park)

in a video, I saw him climbing down a tree into the
enclosure and a lion running toward him

when he was four feet from the ground,
the lion leaped up and tore him from the tree

Gerson got up for a moment before the lion pulled
him back on the ground

and, mercifully, I couldn’t see what happened,
but there was no doubt Gerson was dead

my hope is that Gerson is in a heaven, his sanity restored,
and able to play with peaceful, big cats there.

Bob Boyd

Down in Georgia
and South Carolina
U S of A

dwell

horrifying night creatures
similar to vampires

Boo Hags!

instead of draining
you of your blood

they suck the breath
out of you

they have no skin
are raw
blood red

they get you
while you sleep

hovering over you
called riding you

while

sucking
your breath
out of your lungs

but take heart
they don’t take
it all

they leave enough
so that you live

and they can
come back for
another fix

or …

they might also
steal you skin

to wander in
while you sleep

and

you will wake up
in a weakened
state

in rare cases
die

to spare yourself
the risk of
being ridden
by a Boo Hag

it might be best
to avoid
South Carolina
and Georgia

their favored
hunting grounds

but should you
insist on going
to these haunts

bring some
cayenne pepper
and some salt

sprinkle it in
the corners of
the rooms

just in case.

Bob Boyd

The Shakers believed
their leader
they called Mother Lee
was a manifestation
of Jesus Christ
said her face often
glowed during worship
believed God was
male and female
their worship, estactic
while dancing believed
they experienced
the Divine
bodies and heads shook
and they screeched –
some thought they
were demon possessed –
believed in healings
and visions from God
renounced earthly
possessions
dressed plainly
worked hard
condemned marriage
celibacy was their rule
believed you couldn’t
be saved
unless you were one
of them.

Bob Boyd

In Scape Ore Swamp there’s a Lizard Man
Bigger, badder than a he-man
Stay away from that scary swamp
Or he might eat you – chomp, chomp, chomp.

Bob Boyd

I once read that aliens would be incomprehensible
to us

I don’t know if the writer, I think a scientist, meant
their appearances or their minds

but imagine if aliens existed with appearances
beyond the reach of human imagination

I think the afterlife is probably like that
incomprehesible, beyond imagination, indescribable

Here’s what I can describe. I’ve often read and heard
that in the afterlife communication is telepathic

I’ve often read and heard communication is telepathic
with aliens as well

I can understand telepathy in the afterlife where
one would not have a voice box

I cannot understand telepathy in aliens, but I’ve heard
and read about it so many times, that I believe it

I think the mysteries of the incomprehensible and the telepathy
wil be revealed to me when I die.

Bob Boyd

I met her briefly at the senior center
downstairs in the nonprofit I worked for
a young women, maybe mid twenties
I only exchanged a few pleasant words with her
but I was blown away by her eyes
the brightest eyes I’d ever seen
like eyes I’d expect to see on a sage
she was the sister of the young woman
who ran the senior center
I told her I was amazed by her sister’s
incredibly bright eyes
she said her sister inherited those eyes
from their father who had bright eyes too
it is said, the eyes are the windows of the soul
had I been able to see inside those windows
I wouldn’t have been surprised if this woman
had or was going to have, the higher
consciousness of a sage.

Bob Boyd