Category: Poems

He was born with water on the brain
bedbound, unable to walk or talk
his life lasted only six years
never had a chance for a normal life
This makes me wonder why
in this world of the living so many
get shortchanged in it, born with
medical problems that doom them
to suffering and limited lives
those children ill fated in this life
those children now dead.

Bob Boyd

Ned’s a brave, patriotic fellow
in the United Kingdom
he’s also fun and intelligent
and his YouTube channel is great
tonight he’s taking a stroll
through Cheshire, England
beautiful, historic city
Christmas lights aglow
I’m liking seeing it all

Ned recording everything he sees
on the brick laden streets
clusters of crowds
voices rising in the night air
young women laughing and
squealing with delight in the
excitement of a party night
legions of people roaming

the streets, even the police
in distinguishable yellow jackets
two of them holding up a drunken
pretty, blonde-haired woman
too drunk to remain standing

Ned’s narration over it all
(I like hearing his British accent)
and to borrow a Brit phrase
you sense something is about
“to kick off” on Ned’s expedition
for stirring YouTube content

he comes upon a swarm of
the yellow-jacketed police
detaining about six young men
searching through their pockets
finding illegal drugs

and whoa! there are sniffer dogs
going crazy with the scents of
all the drugs hidden by numerous
nervous, young men in the streets

and holy moly! Ned comes
upon an incident, nine police
yelling at a crazed man with a knife
they take him down without
any harm done, kudos to them
that’s the kick off, and the
rest of the video is quiet and
enjoyable, great work by EnglishNed.

Bob Boyd

His loving wife of seven years
inexplicably went missing one day
her car in the driveway
her belongings all in the apartment
he and the police suspected foul play
no evidence of that ever showed up
a year later when he came home
his wife was in the apartment doing dishes
acting as if everything was normal
and looking exactly as she did on
the last day he saw her
but something about her was different
she told him somehow, someway
she had been vanished into the future
told him crazy and unbelievable stories
told him he had to stay home from work
the next day, a bomb was going off
in the building where he worked and
he would die in the bomb blast
though she pleaded with him to stay home
he didn’t believe anything she said
thought she’d gone a little crazy and
for that year had been with another man
they fought over him going to work
and she wouldn’t stop trying to make
him listen to her until enraged
he swore and slapped her into silence
he went to a hotel to get away from
her craziness and what he suspected
was her year of unfaithfulness
went to work the next morning
died in the bomb blast that afternoon.

Bob Boyd

Her life was full of turbulence
from her birth as an orphan
lived with several foster families
two were chaotic and uncaring
they abused her in all ways imaginable
she felt unloved and abandoned
broke out of the system at eighteen
banged up in a car accident 2 years later
that put her in a wheelchair for life
a boyfriend she had left her for another
despite all the turbulence eventually got
a college degree and became a teacher
married and for the rest of her years
had a loving marriage and a happy life
the turbulence gone from her life forever.

Bob Boyd

I stood at her gravesite
my life over
a bouquet of flowers
in my trembling hands
the array of flowers
watered by the tears
dropping from my eyes
I cried and cried
a thousand more tears
as I mournfully wondered
why God had taken
the sweetest girl
the love of my life
away from me
just seventeen
dead in the ground
on that cold
September morning
my first love
my last love.

Bob Boyd

People frozen in place
some bent over and
swaying side to side
some stumbling about
others walking slo mo
many passed out on
the concrete sidewalks
some living on them
welcome to zombie
land, Kensington,
Ave Philadelphia, PA
some are dying and
most are dead already
or soon will be dead
you’re in a god forsaken
hell of drug addicts
Kensington, Ave
Philadelphia, PA
where city leaders
allow it to happen
drug addicts living
moving like zombies
on Kensington, Ave
it’s a goddamn mess
a goddamn shame.

Bob Boyd

Fame
fortune
achievements
successes
failures
awards
holidays
presents
surprises
disappointments
perfect health
mental or
physical
health problems
perfect physiques
imperfect physiques
beauty
ugliness
rich people
poor people
true loves
untrue loves
good times
bad times
laughter
tears

all eventually
dissolve into
the impermanence.

Bob Boyd

Some people claim alien hybrids
are among us

indistinguishable from you and me
no way to detect them

it’s claimed they’re here as prototypes
of a better, less warlike human species

God knows we could use some of that
before we blow our planet to bits

with the plethora of nukes growing
all over the world

I don’t believe there are any
hybrids

looking like us and walking on
the planet

I do believe there are aliens
under the sea.

Bob Boyd

Listening to an old love song
There’s a Moon Out Tonight
in an unguarded moment
I’m there
in that song
strolling along a lake
with a beautiful woman
the moon looking on
approvingly
holding hands
the feel of her hand
beyond heavenly
exchanging loving glances
romantic declarations
a heartfelt I love you
although nighttime
my world is aglow
I’m feeling it
savoring it
reliving it
those old romantic feelings
those unbridled joys
the incomparable happiness
then like an ancient charioteer
reining in rebellious horses
I rein in those feelings
and steer my mind
back into reality
the moment extinguished
my heart and mind
at rest.

Bob Boyd

I hear a crooner singing
an old 30s song
in a YouTube video
the song’s entitled
What’s the Use of Living Without Love
he’s bemoaning the loss of a love
a woman who left him

as if it’s a real scenario
I find myself thinking
move on
forget about her
if she returns
which is doubtful
you’ll only risk
the same heartache again
move on
into the dawning of a better day
filled with rich opportunities

to experience the joys
the ecstasies of
falling in love again
with a new woman
a fresh start
the excitement of
getting to know her
and just maybe
one better suited for you
move on.

Bob Boyd

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