Cruelty is now

a virtue and love wicked  

(the Rubicon crossed) 

Gimme the swag you

say but freebies don't buy your

freedom, just a rush

Ghost town strip malls and 

broken down tract houses are

roadside scenery 

Forgone conclusions

deny deeper truths that hide

behind facile clues 

We need more empty

spaces in which wandering

minds unlock puzzles 

Pound pavement or run

wild in the streets looking for 

something to call yours 

Scatter the money 

changers and smash the benches 

with righteous anger 

Back to the start like

tumbling in Snakes and Ladders 

you begin again 

False prophets profit

while true saints suffer under

loathsome lies and hate

Algorithms of 

idiocy infect our

world and dilute thought 

In the quiet of 

early morn come coyotes' 

screams, yips, howls, and barks  

Broken beauty bursts 

forth from filth like daffodils 

among the refuse 

The golden idol 

lays crushed amid the rubble 

by the cursed rabble 

Time and bombs both go

tick tock but the latter at 

least can be defused 

Smiling lies try to 

upend the truth and sadly

it's starting to work 

Don't go home again

for they're waiting just inside 

to turn us to ghosts 

Broken on the wheel 

or perhaps just a hamster 

racing towards nothing 

Life's a death sentence

and sometimes a murder is 

just a bunch of crows 

April snow sends birds'

wings thrumming as they cry out 

for a bit of food 

The temple curtain 

torn in two reveals secrets,

lies, and agendas 

They've colored so far

outside the lines, scrawled over

every sacred text 

Spellbound by hell hounds

and dazzled by devils our

gauzy gazes blur

Adagio for 

Strings plays quietly as the

world self immolates 

Steer straight and hope to

avoid our modern Scylla

and his Charybdis

Rain drips from the tree

branches towards the waiting earth

below, parched, longing 

 It doesn't matter, 

or so I've been told, as the 

path underfoot caves 

Apes still, we turn all

technology towards violence, 

sex, supremacy 

Elusive answers

to existential questions

hang in the half-light 

I'm sick of writing 

these damn haikus and will shut

 it down (April Fools)