I hadn’t seen her in 50 years
and couldn’t believe

what I saw

compared to how I remembered her
when she was young and beautiful

cruel Time had annihilated her
youth and her beauty

reduced her to a sexless
old lady barely getting around

with her hands on a walker

I couldn’t believe the difference
between the young beauty she was

and the old nondiscript old woman
she had become

and I hated what Time and aging
had done to her

Bob Boyd

It saddens me how age erases a woman’s beauty. Sometimes so much you cannot tell how beautiful a woman was in her youth. To me, it seems cruel that this, like flowers that fade, happens to all women. But I take heart when I read of Near Death Experiences where when an old woman is clinically dead and in the afterlife, she becomes young again. So if these experiences are authentic, maybe death redeems a woman’s beauty, and she stays beautiful forever. And maybe if a woman wasn’t blessed with beauty in this life she is blessed with it in the afterlife. I like the idea of that.

Dark clouds suddenly
appeared

over his town
over his head

he sensed his reckoning
was coming

for the bad deed
he did done

a young woman in her
grave

that he put there
and never got caught

and never got imprisoned
or put to death for

until the dark clouds
opened

and let the bolt of
lightning though

that struck him dead

Bob Boyd

I don’t know if Karma exists, but it can be satisfying if an evil person gets his due. I do believe in cause and effect. You kill a person, get caught, and put in prison or put to death. I believe a lot of what happens in this world is random, like the woman who was walking in a park in New York and, unexpectedly, was killed by a fallen branch. I believe mysteries like Karma will be revealed to me when I die. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe I’ll just be dead and obliterated into oblivion.

Flowers still bloom
birds still sing
rivers still flow
the sun still shines
good people still abound
and the world still goes on

Bob Boyd

I believe one of the saving graces of this world in which there is endless evil, suffering, and unfairness is the good people who make it better. The good people who sometimes make it better against almost impossible odds and never give up. And no matter how bad things get, those good people still abound. And the world still goes on in spite of the bad things that cloud our planet.

81.4 for a woman
75.8 for a man

But I think more people
are living longer medically
and at some point I don’t
think living longer is worth it
quality of life diminishes
body keeps breaking down
like an old machine beyond
any chances of repair
more pills and medicals
to extend your lifespan
at some point not really
living – like walking dead
medically delaying the
natural inevitable instead
of medically postponing it

Bob Boyd

I was close to dying twice. First time from a blood cancer. Second time from a heart electrically out of sync that would have killed me, except for a pacemaker implanted in my chest. Now I think
for Death the third may be a charm if the cancer comes back, and
I say screw this. No more medicals to keep me alive. Come Death
take me home or to an obliterating oblivion. And I don’t want to live
past age 85.

I was age six
getting a pair of shoes
at a shoe store

and a salesman was
putting shoes on
my feet

to see which pair I
liked

his voice was so
soothing that
listening to it
put me in a trancelike
state

the first time I ever
felt that state of mind

thereafter I felt that
trancelike state of mind
kind of like day dreaming

every so often

about 50 years later I
learned that trancelike
state is called ASMR

Bob Boyd

I was surprised to learn that trancelike state I felt as a child had a name: ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response), and that it had various triggers, like the soft sound of a person’s voice,
watching a woman combing her hair, getting a massage, etc. And every so often I listen to ASMR YouTube videos for a nice relaxing break.

Thousands of people
allegedly

abducted by aliens

Ufologists galore
speak reams

about them

but why don’t super
telescopes see them
abundantly

coming and going

Maybe like in Star Trek
they have

cloaking devices

Maybe they can
appear and disappear
in and out of

dimensions

I’m off the opinion
they can do the

aforementioned

But I don’t know
about all those

abductions

Bob Boyd

I’ve read and listened to so many accounts of UFOs and aliens that I believe these things exist. I’m not sure about the abductions revealed through hypnosis. I believe with hypnosis a hypnotist can lead a person to believe things the hypnosis wants them to believe consciously or subconsciously.

I always remember the past life regressions where via hypnosis you could learn about your past lives. The problem was there’d be several or more people who were told they were the same person in a former life. For example, six Moses.

Based on that and other falsehoods people were led to believe during hypnotic sessions, I’m skeptical about the abductions. But I do believe in aliens, and that they are here. And based on what I see as creditable naval witnesses, I also believe some are living under the sea.

Even female insects are choosy
when it comes to a
suitable suitor, an ideal beau
some female insects
are probably stuck up
and what’s a male bug to do
if he isn’t born with
the right stuff
the lady killer charm
to easily woo female insects
of his insect species
maybe he becomes a monk
insects don’t have monks
you emphatically say
how do you know that’s true
do you speak insect
are you privy to their secrets
their hidden beliefs
can you read their minds
but let’s say you’re right
then what’s a male insect
to do who hasn’t got game

Bob Boyd

Of course, I’m kidding around here. My inspiration was from watching a video about those tiny jumping spiders, one of the spider species that doesn’t creep me out. I saw several males trying to mate with what must have been a most desirable female jumping spider. She rejected the first two but accepted the third.

This made me think about how it’s the same with female humans. It also made me think that romantic love with humans, not unlike with insects and all the other species, is more about procreation than the hearts and flowers our brains and hearts make of it — though I’d rather that wasn’t true.

The hike was long
the day sweltering
the sun beat down
like a hot hammer
on the earth anvil
Jim was getting
dehydrated
disoriented
he lit a cigarette
that fell from his hand
as he passed out
that started a fire
but Smokey the Bear
put it out and
revived Jim with
some Spring water
and saved his life

Bob Boyd

I’m like an idea machine. Ideas come into my hear easily. He just started this poem with “the hike was long” and the rest just fell into place. Of course, I had to do drafts until I got it right, right for me, but I like the way it turned out.

She met him
on a ghost tour
at the old abandoned
Hanson House
haunted as hell
he spooked her when
she first saw him in spirit
though his handsomeness
amazed her
dazed her
and quelled her fear
telepathically he said
the right and sweet words
wooed her from
the afterlife
made her his earthly love
now Helena says he’s
her soulmate
and she’s so smitten
with him
that to seal their love
she plans to kill herself
and join him forever
in the ghost world

Bob Boyd

After reading and hearing so many reports of ghosts, especially on old Art Bell Shows, I’ve come to believe in them. As I began writing this poem, I was reminded of a woman who claimed she’d been married to a ghost, and though I don’t believe she was, the idea of a human married to a ghost gave this poem its impetus. And I believe it’s not far fetched to think someone would be okay with suicide to be forever with their spectral soulmate.

until she roped him in with
her sweet kisses
her charming ways
she domesticated his wildness
she tamed his rebelliousness
now he’s like a horse in a corral
restless and ready to leap out

Bob Boyd

This poem was written about guys who love a variety of women and how many they can score with and have a hard time being faithful to one. It was a case of old habits die hard when one woman had domesticated him, and he began to feel penned in after the new love excitement died down. Now maybe his woman reformed him, her man, or maybe he returned to his playboy ways.

how the hell can that be
body of a super buffed man
head and face of a terrifying dog
are these people delusional
on drugs or pranking
I could accept the plausibility
of a Bigfoot
but a Dogman is beyond me
though I may have to change
my mind
as the sightings keep increasing
and maybe all these cryptids
are hoaxes by wiseass aliens
or maybe they’re … interdimensional

Bob Boyd

Whether true or bogus, I like reading about cryptid sightings. They make for good fiction and folklore and, who knows, some or all of them just might be true. And, if true, I lean to them being interimensional.

appear every so often on my YouTube page
It seems there’s an inhaustible supply of them

They are alluring and most of them are waving
their hands doing ASMR

They are nice to look at but I don’t get attached

I’m too old to be yearning for a young woman
and too much of a realist

Besides I’ve been with more than my share of
women in this passing life

But I’m not above listening to their ASMR
that is so relaxing and nice

And I hope all of them find lasting love
and live long and happy lives

Bob Boyd

Sometimes, though I’m an old man now, I think I’d like to be with a woman again. And I miss the days when the young pretties were not decades out of my old orbit. But I’m a realist and not about lusting after them, though, like fine art, I can appreciate their flowering beauty. But, I’m wiser than ever about how that beauty is transitory and, like once blooming flowers, will all too soon fade away. More’s the pity, I say.

But if the NDEers are right and death is a glorious afterlife, everyone looks young again there.

In the dream, you looked like a woman
I had known

But you were more fun than she
had been

I was getting a feeling I haven’t had in
a long time in the real world

I was feeling a possible connection
Others in the dream were feeling it too

At one point, we were standing in front
of many fish tanks in a store

And you said there was an exotic fish
in one of them

the name I cannot recall

I said no way

you said yes way

and showed me the beautiful fish in a tank
a few tanks away away from where we stood

I found it funny and wonderful that you were right
and being with you had become such a delight

the dream ended with you taking a right turn
I presumed to go to the ladies room

and I woke up seeing the right turn was into
the living room of my apartment

and of course there was no you

And I was sad and wishing the dream
had been true

Bob Boyd

This poem is about a real dream I had last night. It was like when you are talking to someone and everything begins to feel right and you sense a romance is lingering in the air, which it often is in those compelling conversations. I was liking this woman so much and I’m sure she was liking me as much. But, damn, what a buzzkill the dream was when I woke up right before the sparks began to fly and the chemistry began to bubble. And to the deity, angel, or whatever, in charge of dreams, kindly give a guy some dreamworld love.

Twice I’ve had near misses with
Death

once a murderous blood cancer
tried to kill me slowly
perhaps it

was sadistic and wanted to
draw out my passing
for its ghoulish pleasure

the second time, my heart
went a little crazy
electrically

out of sync with its
two chambers

and I was told by a doctor
I could die at any minute

medical interventions saved
my life both times

months of cancer treatments
pills and infusions

a pacemaker for the errant
heart

I don’t believe I’ll have any
more near misses

because either I did instantly
maybe in sleep

or if the cancer returns
I let it do its thing and
slowly kill me

rather than prolonging my
life any more medically

Bob Boyd

I worked with the elderly for over twenty years, and from my experiences and general observations of people aging, in my opinion, living too long can eventually become a losing proposition for most people: Your quality keeps diminishing; your body keeps breaking down more and more, like an old, worn out machine; you may lose the ability to take care of yourself; you could be sent to a nursing home, or you lose your mind, your sense of self, to a heartless, ravenous dementia.

And I believe there comes a point where being kept medicaly alive just isn’t worth it – along with the exorbitant costs, physically, mentally, and monetarily.

but in my thirties when I was a jogger,
I took a shortcut one night

through a small cemetery
a 5 minute run

and though I didn’t believe in ghosts
and saw none in the cemetery

jogging (actually running)
through that quiet cemetery
scared me so much

that I almost could feel
my hair standing on end

Bob Boyd

After listening to many accounts of people who experienced ghosts, or claim they did, on the radio program Coast to Coast and many other accounts at different YouTube videos and websites, like ghosts in light houses, I’ve become a believer in ghosts. But what I don’t understand, if ghosts are real, why would they haunt a musty, old house? Were I a ghost, I think I’d travel to many different places. I definitely wouldn’t be a homebody ghost.

By the way, here’s a poem about a residual ghost:

Lucy

Lucy was as fair a woman as a woman can be.
She passed from this life at only twenty three.
On the day of her marriage to Charles Porter,
She tripped on her wedding gown on a stairs.
She died when her head hit the bottom step.
Now she wanders day and night in her wedding gown,
As if still trying to get to her wedding that never happened.
I’ve tried to communicate with Lucy about going to the Light,
But she never seems to acknowledge my presence.
Perhaps Lucy is only like a film replaying day and night.

Bob Boyd