Were I to see directly
and in person

the way
chickens are
slaughtered

I’d probably
become a

vegetarian.

But I’ll never
see that
undoubtedly

terrible sight

because I
like eating

chicken too much.

Bob Boyd

At first

the petals
are closed

but ever so
gradually

they softly begin
to open

and once they
are fully opened

in full nonresistant
blooming glory

a season of
ecstasies.

Bob Boyd

after years of abductions
and probes

and attempts to rewire
and rehab

the human race

the aliens packed up
their belongings

and abandoned
their bases

in the mountains
under the ground

and deep in the sea

they concluded the
human race

was impossible
to warbreak

and abandoning
all hope

they flew back
to their planets

and left the
human race to

its doomsday fate

Bob Boyd

they were married
for seven years

attended church
together

didn’t have children
but had six dogs

they rescued from
an animal shelter

to friends and
neighbors

they were a happy
couple

and looked perfect
together

both exceptionally
attractive

but unknown to
those who knew
them

they were cheating
on each other

and in their unseen
future

one would murder
the other

Bob Boyd

The great mountain began crumbling.
Mud slides began sliding.
A roar issued out of the mounatin.
Trees, boulders, rocks roll in the
river of the great mountain’s roar.
In the midst of all that chaos
with humans safe on high ground,
a tiny dog runs in front of it all
barely ahead of the falling death.
Maybe he escaped with his life
but nobody knows for sure.

Bob Boyd

At the
pet store
he spied
a beautiful
fancy goldfish
staring at him,
like it was
beckoning him
to buy it.

Even though he
already had
two fancies,

he bought the
compelling,
fancy goldfish
and placed it
into his
40 gallon tank
with his two
fancy goldfish.

The next
morning one of
his two fancies
was dead,

which seemed
premature
to him, but
he shrugged
it off, thinking
sometimes
fish and
people die
unexpectedly.

A day later,
the other
fancy died.

He checked the
water in the tank;

it was okay.

He checked to
see if any
fish diseases
were in the tank.

None.

That night he
saw the new
fancy goldfish
in a nightmare(?)
sitting on his
chest,

(it’s eyes
demonic red),

psychically
sucking
his life force
out of him

until he
gasped,
trembled
and died,
a horrified
look frozen
on his
pale face.

Its infamy
finished,
the new
fancy goldfish
swam back to
its terrifying
astral abode,

a godforsaken,
fiery hell.

Bob Boyd

Everything was
wonderful
at first.

And she
looked so
incredibly
beautiful to him.

But after
about six months
the wonderful
began
to wane

and her
beauty wasn’t
as mind-blowing.

But it was
still good and
he wanted to
keep it alive.

Unknown to
him, she was
feeling the
same way.

But unlike
with him,
she had
gotten bored.

And left him
for the highs
of a
brand new
love.

Bob Boyd

When you’re young
and good looking,
it seems like
your looks
will last forever.

But you start
seeing the
fault lines
in the bedrock
of your belief
as you get
dragged into
your thirties.

But not quite.

The forties hammer
it home a little
more,

but, if you’re lucky,
you still might
look good.

Barely.

Past fifty the
loss is way too
apparent, even if
you go under
the knife.

So disappointing.

If you make it
past seventy
and you look
in the mirror,
you’ll have
a hard time
believing you
are that
old woman
looking
back at you.

Those good looks
gone –
forever.

Bob Boyd

I always knew you’d
come here someday

mature woman,
youthful, old soul,
hair of gray,
lovely in
countless ways.

And I knew I’d be
thinking if only
we met

when we both
were younger

and had enough
time to spend
a lifetime together,
soulmates through
the years
and the seasons,

maybe even forever.

But, alas, I know
I was just
imagining you,

but it gave an
imaginative old man
some sweet
and pleasant
thoughts and

another fanciful
might have been.

Bob Boyd

Summer’s in for
the fight of its life

and it’s heating up
September with
ambitions to live

into December,
to have a first
Summer’s Christmas.

But Fall and Winter
have different plans.

They tag team Summer,
knock it out cold in
med September.

And Summer stays
knocked out until
July and

wakes up
determined to have
its first Christmas
again,

which it has
been doing

since the
seasons were born

and the fight will
begin and end
the same way
as long as

there is the sun,
the moon, the earth

the seasons
and the heavens.

Bob Boyd

All the way through
grade school and
high school
Leah made A grades

and always knew
she wanted to be
a doctor.

She got accepted
at The University of
New Mexico School
of Medicine with a
scholarship.

In her second year
she fell in love
with a student named
John Nettles,

who was a member
of a cult.

Seven months into
their relationship

John convinced Leah
to join the cult.

A year later, Leah
was brainwashed
and dead.

She died holding
John’s hand in
the cult’s
mass suicide,

and the members
believed they would
return to life in a
better world on

a distant planet
and live there

young and happy
forever.

And all of Leah’s
plans evaporated,
her dreams dead,
her becoming a
doctor —

NEVER.

Tragic how
sometimes one’s
dreams can be
sabotaged by

ANOTHER.

Bob Boyd

Mary had a little lamb;
she also had a beau.

Her lamb followed her
everywhere. Her beau
was just so so

and jealous of Mary’s
friendship with her
faithful lamb.

After many fights with
her beau about her
friendship with the lamb,

Mary realized she had
to choose between
the lamb and the beau.

But when Mary was
at work baking a
plum pie

for a customer named
Jack Horner,

her beau kidnapped
her lamb, drove him
50 miles away to a
lamb slaughterhouse.

When Mary came
home, he told her
her lamb had
run way.

But what her beau
didn’t know
is Mary had had
her lamb
microchipped

and she saved
her lamb just in
time as he was
about to be
slaughtered.

She kicked her
beau out of her
house,

said I don’t need
no man,

and her and her
lamb

lived happily
ever after.

Bob Boyd

No more problems,
hassling your head.

No more enemies,
won’t need friends.

No more having to
hustle for money,

won’t need any
when you are

dead.

If you were a
son of a bitch
in this life

no consequences,
no haters,

if dead is
dead.

Bob Boyd

she no longer got
the lingering looks,
the constant glances.

Lusting men no
longer wanted
to sleep with her.

Even the mirror
no longer
was wowed
by her.

In a way, when
her looks
vanished, it was
as if she
vanished too.

But though age
stole her looks,

as it does with
everyone,

in my opinion,
she probably
got hotter.

How could I
write such an
impossibility
you ask?

I say with all
the years
she’s lived, she
probably got
a lot hotter

inside her head.

And, think
about it,
beyond the
superficial,

what makes
her the hottest
is the part of
her you
cannot see.

Her beautiful mind.

Bob Boyd

When I first head
of Dogman,

the idea of a Dogman
seemed ridiculous
to me.

Given all the Bigfoot
sightings, I could see
that idea as plausible,

but Dogman, no way.

Yet the reports of
Dogman sightings
keep rolling in,

especially in
Ohio.

As the sightings
keep increasing,
it gets harder
to be skeptical,

sightings all over
the U S of A
and even
in Canada,
according the the
North American
Dogman Project.

And the fact there is
a Dogman Project
suggests

that Dogman might
be real, and surely
it is real to those

who founded the
project.

The project and
all those alleged
sightings

imply I could
be wrong
in not believing

Dogman is real.

And if you are
a believer in this
canine wonder,
you are

probably right.

Bob Boyd