I don’t remember her name.
I didn’t know her well.
I sat near her in a high school class.
I remember she was sweet and pretty.
She also seemed like a kind person.
One day I recall hearing a guy tell another
that he had her too, as if she were just
a whore and nothing more to be used
for sex by both of those scumbags.
No doubt they told others and sullied
her reputation in high school evermore.
How I hated those guys back then.
It was like a sacrilege to use that sweet
girl, dump her, and brag about it.
Worse, how heartbreaking and awful
it must have been for her to endure
being seen as just a body to be used
for sex and nothing more.

Bob Boyd

Saw a video of a woman who was being questioned for
being drunk and disorderly. She refused to show her ID
to the policeman. She called him an asshole, a piece of
shit and a cocksucker. For a while she was getting away
with her verbal abuse and noncompliance, but when she
tried to walk away, out came the handcuffs and she found
herself on the ground screaming and being cuffed and
arrested. And she kicked the cop giving herself more
charges and possibly a longer prison term.

Maybe in cases like this people are too drunk to realize
the seriousness of their situations, or they get those beer
muscles and think they’re invincible and untouchable.
But, as to be expected, things always end badly for them
when they’re cuffed, stuck in the police cruiser, and on
their way to the police station for a booking, criminal
charges, and penalties administered in a court of law.

Bob Boyd

No safety nets. Poverty everywhere.
Buildings that wouldn’t pass code in
first world countries. Less chances
to get ahead. Fewer rise up out of
caste-like social structures that in
first world countries are mostly
nonexistant. Legitimate beggars in
the streets. Crime might be higher
out of poverty and no other way to
survive. Family support tighter out of
necessity for surviving the dismal
futures financially and emotionally.
Family members may have to work
at jobs in other countries to send
money home due to lack of jobs in
their impoverished countries.
Nobody gets welfare and social
service benefits. They’re on their own.

Bob Boyd

God how I love easy going people.
No nonsense. No jerk behavior.
Just enjoyable people who never
make any trouble, and are nice to
be around.

As opposed to people who seem
wired to be jerks and annoying. I
have to wonder if jerks are really
aware of how annoying they are,
and if there is anyway to
rehabilitate their offensive behavior.
Somehow I doubt it.

As opposed to people who act as
if they are superior to everyone
because of God given gifts, like
high intelligence, beauty, or how
much money thay have. I find
people like that insufferable.

Imagine if the world were full of
easy going people. We’d probably
have no wars, no murders, no
fights, fewer tensions, less
arguments, and life would be
more peaceful than it is now.

Bob Boyd

Some people want to live to 100 or longer.
Most of them have no idea what that would entail.
Odds are their minds would be shot with a dementia.
Their bodies would be barely mobile, if at all.
Most likely, they’d look like death walking unless
they were one of the miraculous exceptions.
But living to 100 just wouldn’t be worth the risks.
I write this after having worked with the elderly
for over twenty years and seen the effects of aging.
Even the 90s pose risks of dementia and the loss
of one’s ability to take care of one’s self.
Nursing homes are in the futures of many at 90
unless miraculously they’ve been blessed.
As for me, 85 is my desired expiration date before
I could lose my mind, mobility and independence.
But because I desire what I see as an ideal age
for my departure from this impermanent life,
I’ll probably live longer than I want to and be at
risk of dementia and all manner of debilitations.

Bob Boyd

Been watching YouTube videos of women
arrested for drunk driving and for creating
all manner of disturbances in public.
At first it was surprising to see legions of
mostly young ladies drunk and disorderly.
The novelty was an addictive watch for
a while, unseeming, shocking, surprising.
Then it was sad to see so many lovely
young women getting themselves in so
much unnecessary trouble with the police.
It was worse when they cried and were in
tearful despair, though of their own making.
Still tragic to see their lives had taken such
drastic turns for whatever unclear reasons.
To me, they were a reminder of the many
sad stories in this often disheartening life.
It is my hope that one day all of us will be
in an after world beyond all the sorrows.

Bob Boyd

Many people have floated in and out
of my life though these 80 years.
Some unforgettable for all of my life.
Most hardly memorable. Some I’ve
forgotten, strangers for a moment.
So many I cannot add them all up.
Some in Europe. Some in the
Philippines. Most in parts of the US.
A constant stream of people. Most
cordial. A few I wish I’d never met.
I wonder if when I die, the river of
people will start flowing again. if so
will all the people/spirits be stellar
or will they be the same good and
not so good – unchanged in death.

Bob Boyd

Upon being arrested
a woman said she was
too hot for jail.

In theory she was right.
She did look too hot to
be confined.

Her looks probably granted
her privileges elsewhere that
less hot women didn’t have.

But, sadly, her actions
cancelled out any privileges
her hotness could have afforded
her.

Sadder still is a woman with her
advantageous looks got herself
into a bad situation

and thought her looks protected
her from the penalties that apply
equally to us all.

Bob Boyd

Paranoid about the rising crime,
perhaps justifiable so,
she bought a handgun.

By mistake, she cut a guy off in
traffic and felt it was his fault
that they almost had an accident.

She jammed on her brakes, got enraged,
started screaming and swearing at the guy
who at first remained calm.

But after her long tirade of swears
and insults, the guy got pissed and
got out of his car to confront her.

To shut him up, she pulled out her gun.
But, enraged, he kept walking toward
her car to tell her off.

She panicked and shot him, blowing her
chances for a self defense plea after
she was arrested.

When she was convicted of murder
in court and sent to jail, she bemoaned
she let anger control her

and took a life because of it. And with
a long prison sentence, lost her freedom
for most of her life.

Bob Boyd

Songbirds, such as sparrows, don’t have
much of a chance to live long lives.
Predators kill 70 percent of them
before they reach old age.

How I hated to read about that.
Sweet singing little birds’ lives snuffed out,
always having to worry about being killed.
Awful way to have to live.

How I hate that part of nature.
How I wonder why a Creator set things
up like that.

If I didn’t believe in a benevolent God
it would be easier to accept the tragic
deaths of little singing birds.
Though I wouldn’t like it, I’d reason
that’s just the way it is.

But it saddens me that those little birds
don’t have much of a chance in life.
And always have to be fearful that
a lurking predator is going to end
them forever.

And I hate how there is so much
carnage in nature.

Bob Boyd

Once I saw an actress on a TV show
who said she wasn’t a joiner.
I identified with that. I’m not a joiner
either, never been a follower either.
I was always okay functioning as a
team in a work environment, but
to me that wasn’t being a follower.
In some ways not being a follower
or a joiner may be a weakness. In
other ways it may be a strength.

Bob Boyd

I’ve noticed some people thrive
on trouble.
They don’t seem happy unless
they have some chaos in their
lives.
They go out of their way to
stir things up.

I think they’re wired that way
from birth instead of being
born like normal people who
avoid trouble and chaos.

Just as a psychopath can’t
change his or her ways, it
might be these troublemakers
are the same, fated with
irksome destinies beyond
their control.

Bob Boyd

she was born unable to see or hear
and had various health problems.
died at age six painfully.
why had this innocent child had to
endure such a horrible fate
when others have comparably
normal, full lives?
perhaps the fates are crueler
to some and kinder to others.
maybe a God has nothing to do
with these human conditions
and it’s all just random events
whether one is lucky or unlucky
in this transient life.

bob boyd

her beauty was beyond compare
unlike any ever seen before
perfection in the female form
yet like a rose’s thorns
she has thorns within
used men like throwaway toys
drained them of their money
left them for men with more
shot one in a drunken rage
now she’s a caged beauty
withering away in prison

bob boyd

some people follow sports teams
it’s a big part of their lives
i’m not one of them
following sports teams has
never had any appeal to me
in a way i wish i could be
a sports fan
it provides a lot of excitement
in one’s life
and there’s always a game
to look forward to watching
with all the suspense and thrills
a harmless and fun addition
to one’s earthly life
perhaps therapeutic too
and something else to do
in a world where boredom
often lurks in a person’s life

bob boyd

in olden times when people were superstitious
they felt the forests were filled with spirits
some benevolent and some malevolent
now most people don’t believe such things
yet despite modernized beliefs
some of the forests hold dangers
as evidenced by the missing 411s
in national park forests where
people disappear and are never found

bob boyd

i remember seeing chimps in movies
always gentle and near human
tamed and fun all the time
in the movies they were in
it was all fun entertainment
until one ripped a woman’s face off
in the month of February 2009
i feel wild animals should
stay in the wild and
never be kept as pets

bob boyd

birds chatter in trees
insects chatter beneath my feet
most I cannot hear
I wonder if any fish besides whales
chatter in the sea
if so
I wonder what they talk about
and if they make small talk
or discuss more profound things
maybe some are telepathic
and read each other’s minds
like dead people are alleged to do
in the infinity beyond this world
and its seas

i’m not sure why
but i have reached
a state of equanimity
or maybe indifference
where i no longer care
if i were to die into
nothingness

if my like ended and
there was no afterlife
if what was me was
obliterated into
me no more forever
with every vestige
of what i had been
erased
i just don’t care

this is not just
false bravado
this is real
i just don’t care

based on the many
ndes i’ve read and
listened to

i believe the afterlife
is glorious
compared to earth life

but if all those wondrous
nde reports were illusionary
and one just died and that
was it and nothing more
i’m good with that

and quite frankly
if reincarnation is real
if we are all fated
to keep reincarnating
i would rather die
into nothingness than
to ever return to earth
again

bob boyd

i think a lot of characteristics in a person’s
behavior and personality are predetermined
like psychopaths
who
i learned yesterday cannot be changed
who
did not wake up one day and decide to be
that way
you might be wondering what this has
to do
with a woman who was uncommonly nice
she was a woman who always woke up
happy
this was not a choice
it was i believe predetermined in her
and unlike most people i have met
few seemed to have the characteristic
i saw her as a lucky anomaly and i
never understood how anyone could
ever wake up happy
just like i never understood whey some
people are fated to be born
psychopathic
and along with waking up happy
she was also uncommonly nice

bob boyd