Category: Poems

I suspect today the ants have run for cover
shivering and swearing about the cold

probably wishing like birds they could fly south
to those warmer cities, sanctuaries from the cold

probably wishing like me they lived in a house
and could turn the heat on

now I’m wondering what they do
when like hell freezing over
the ground they travel on gets iced over

I’m thinking they burrow deeper into the earth
maybe closer to what I think is a warmer core
maybe halfway to China

maybe like Tibetan monks they practice tummo
and turn the thermostats in their bodies
up to my age, 80 – degrees instead of years.

Bob Boyd

I have been yearning for the cold weather
and holy hell it’s here brrrr brrrr brrrr
shiver shiver shiver

57 but seems like 27 since it snuck in
so quickly and coldly last night

and was much lower than 57 initially
which my apartment has hung on to

like a kid refusing to give up one of its toys
I think it likes the cold more than I do

I’m gulping down hot coffee
blanketed in layers of warm clothing

and a hoodie and a lumber jack hat
which has warmed me up enough

I refuse to turn on the heat
until the cold becomes near unbearable
before I freeze to death

I did this last year successfully
and plan to withstand the cold
even better this year

you may think my plan is crazy
maybe it is but I don’t want to spend
a small fortune on heat with my poverty line
Social Security income

when I like a beast in the wild can endure the cold
and like the challenge of enduring it
like maybe that beast does

and maybe like that hairy beast I’ll get more hairy
longer hair and a bushy beard

besides this Don Quixote jousting with the cold
is one of the few quasi adventures left in me
in my reclusive, nonadventurous life at 80.

Bob Boyd

Women who hike in the wilderness alone
worry me for reasons I’m sure you can deduce

easier prey when in the wilderness alone
whether you are a woman or a man

making yourself an easy opportunity
for a predator, man or beast, looking for a kill

also bad if you get injured by yourself
without a hiking friend to help you

why put yourself in potential jeopardy
when with precautions you could be safer?

just saw a YouTube video where a beautiful woman
disappeared and never found hiking by herself

vanishings like this happen far too much
sometimes even when precautions are taken.

Bob Boyd

Billy Hargrove accepted a midnight dare
from his rowdy teenage friends
brothers Alex and Michael Simms
spend an hour in Greenhill Cemetery
in the city they lived in, Greensboro, NC
beginning at the witching hour, 12 am
Billy a badass from birth
and a nonbeliever in foolish things
snunk into the cemetery minutes before 12 am
sat down with his back resting on a headstone
where Lucreatia Burns, a witch when she lived,
was buried under the headstone since 1942
an hour past and Billy got up and left
laughed when he saw his friends
sitting in their cars outside the cemetery
and pumped his fist in the air triumphantly
a moment later, blood poured out of
shocked Billy’s eyes, ears and mouth
and he was lifted and shaken in the air
by a cackling insanely strong, invisible force
that tore his shaking body apart
and … cursed … badass Billy Hargrove was no more.

Bob Boyd

Like beasts of the jungle are born to kill
so was he

except the beasts killed for food
but he killed for the thrill

unlike the beasts of the jungle
he relished his tortures before the kills

he had no misgivings, no guilt
like sinless jungle beasts, he was born to kill

a terrible car accident left him with a concussion
and rearranged his thinking

the weight of all those tortures and kills
began to shame and torment him

as if the brain damage birthed a conscience
rendering him unable to torture and kill

he climbed to the top of a mountain cliff
jutting rocks below it

took a deep breath, began to step off the cliff
then backed away, couldn’t do it

hiking back down the mountain
stepped too close to a bear cub

screamed when he saw the mother bear
growling and racing toward him

he tried to outrun the bear until the bear caught him
and did to him what he couldn’t do to himself

now his blood and bones are scattered in the forest
and he is in a hell being tortured and killed indefinitely.

Bob Boyd

She was born into all the advantages
wealthy parents, high IQ, beautiful face and body

In her early twenties
she got tired of having everything

began drinking too much
driving too fast and too drunk

flew off a highway into a tree
rushed to the ER by paramedics

clinically dead on the examination table
a doctor pumped her chest with defibrillator paddles

returned to life minutes later
said she had a life review and saw God too

shortly after that and some reflection
donated her riches to the poor

and became a Buddhist nun
in faraway Singapore.

Bob Boyd

Should had died at age 76 of cancer
medical treatments saved my life
at 80 another pending medical crisis
a pace maker staved off the threat
now at 80 and nine months I’m worried
I feel too goddamn good
riding an exercise bike 2 hours daily
working out 3 times a week
writing thousands of poems
I might live longer than I want to
like my mother who lived to her late 90s

from working decades with the elderly
I’ve seen living too long
is often fraught with problems
possibilities of more health conditions
maybe a dementia or Alzheimer’s as well
maybe in a wheelchair or on a walker
quality of life becomes diminished
medical costs can keeping adding up
might be in an assisted living facility
unable to take care of yourself
or consigned to a bleak nursing home
fully dependent on others for your care
your independence, your freedom
and your extended long life
essentially finished before you die.

Bob Boyd

Thumbing a ride to high school
he got a ride from his second cousin
a good conversation with him
a nice guy

weeks later the nice guy second cousin
shot a store clerk in a robbery
and went to prison for life

years after that, he broke out of prison
killed a prison guard

disappeared for ten years
police didn’t know where he was

became a celebrated poet in Chicago under an assumed name
awarded poet of the month as J. J. Jameson

a photo of him with the award in a local newspaper
caught the attention of a police office

the authorities finally caught up with him
second cousin killer poet back in prison

he tried to get paroled a couple of times
denied each time

until in his late seventies when sick and dying
paroled and died a few years ago.

Bob Boyd

Sweet couplings of lovers
nature’s way of multiplying
the human species

sooner or later children follow
advancing the species

as it has been in the beginning
as it will be in the end

as it is will all species
from the least to the most

procreation, procreation, ad infinitum.

Bob Boyd

I never really paid much attention to YouTube Shorts
until I saw one about a woman dressed as a flight attendant

who was lean and symmetrical appearing to be about 6’8” tall
and walking in an airport towering over everyone

I’m 6’1” but I’d feel short standing next to her
and seeing her was like seeing a new world wonder

people everywhere gawk in amazement at her
she is also beautiful which adds to her appeal

in other YouTube shorts she’s walking through different places
like crowded city streets and busy shopping centers

and no matter where she goes tall, regal and beautiful
people stare at her in wonder

I have watched videos of her at least twenty times or more
to observe the expressions of all the people blown away by her.

Bob Boyd

In a dream last night
I felt a woman kiss me

I didn’t see her face
I just felt her lean over me

from behind my head
and kiss me gently 3 times

because I had no idea
who she was

and couldn’t see her face
I felt uncomfortable

even though I’m by myself
and have no woman

in my otherwise good life
I guess that discomfort

with a few dreamy kisses
tells me I’m not hard up.

Bob Boyd

The tree leaves sense the coming of the joyous fall
and their long awaited sky dives

along with the excitement of dressing in
new red, yellow and orange fall robes

they leap off branches of weeping trees
into the exhilarating freedom of the windy air

they land upon the welcoming earth
gradually dissolving into the elements

and remain in the ether for a while
until they reawaken blissfully on the limbs of trees.

Bob Boyd

You know the cliche, “A man ain’t supposed to cry?
Looking back, I cried twice over lost loves.
Now I see those times as wasted tears
on loves there weren’t real loves,
spent tears that soon dried up.
My tears were put to better use
over the death of a bedbound child,
spent tears not wasted on the
worst kind of heartbreak,
the mourning of the death
of an innocent child,
who never had a life.

Bob Boyd

Decades ago, a massive python invasion
of the Florida Everglades began

humans who had bought baby pythons for pets
released them when they got too big to handle

gradually the pythons mated and exploded
into tens of thousands

and began eliminating raccoons, opossums and rabbits
upsetting the everglades fragile ecosystem

hunters recruited for bounties and millions of dollars spent
with little effect in halting the python invasion

after weeks of the plan only 68 pythons eliminated
the program ineffective, the costs exorbitant

two python detecting dogs recruited next
a better plan but not good enough

hundreds of dog teams needed to cover all of the everglades
a sprawling 1.5 million-acre wetlands

costing millions of dollars and requiring constant maintenance
the costs and the maintenance unmanageable

after which real indigenous rabbits in secure cages were used
to lure the pythons out of their hideouts

menacing pythons began to surround the terrified rabbits
a public outcry saved the rabbits, ended the experiment

giving rise to a better plan with robo-rabbits in cages
armed with high tech mapping, rabbit-like fur and rabbit scents

so far the program a success less costly and efficient
but uncertain if it will rid the wetlands of the pesky pythons.

Bob Boyd

He was a teenager in the Philippines
and a ladyboy in the making

a friend of my ex filipina wife’s niece
and a good kid

though I’m 100 proof heterosexual
I liked him despite his ladyboy inclination

he could sing exceptionally well like an angel
and he had a gentle and fun nature

I had a couple of conversations with this kid
and felt the goodness inside of him

I didn’t care that he chose the path he did
I did care that he had troubles in his family

the worst was when in a remote province
far from Davao where he lived

he got stabbed to death on a rough street
probably because of his sexual preference

it was a sad day in Davao when this teenage kid’s life
got so brutally taken away.

Bob Boyd