The Scenic Route 

or Mad Men Heaven

The scene was extraordinary.  

Billboards lining every highway 

overlooking whatever,,,

* * *

Like it or not,
most people learn all they need to know
from advertisements.

The Great Spin

This is the crazy, 

hateful, greed driven world 

our grandfathers gave us 

and they too 

delivered great speeches 

expressing concern 

for their children’s children

and the spin goes on. 

Rivers continue to flow. 

Tides rise and fall.

Seasons subtly change 

as if to say 

it’s suppose to be this way 

over and over again.

At last the right war.  

Oligarchs fight oligarchs.

Both wield steel sanctions.  

‘Stop the oil’ cries one.

‘Take the cash’ cries the other.

All for show I think.

*

Half of that country loves him.
The other half hates him.
Why do we always side with the haters?

*

When corporations get religious freedom
maybe they’ll tell god
what’s going on down here.

The tin man returns, 

vindictively oiled and greased,

spouting stupid stuff.

*

On a blank canvas
they draw invisible lines.
They call it the truth.

What truth? I wonder
but I’m not an art critic
so it must be truth.

Nothing is the truth,
so everyone draws a blank
and the tin man smiles.

*

A millionaire’s truth
is not really quite the same
as a poor man’s truth
but
it’s necessary
to make the poor man believe
his truth is the same.

and here I thought 'high-tech' 

could shoot a gnat off a horse's ass 

at any given distance

but

when it comes to an enormous jetliner,  

it seems 'high-tech' isn’t so high.

Cold Standoff 

There they go again, 

puffing up their chests in pride, 

aggressively lame 

like scared animals 

getting ready for a fight

they will never fight.

Haiku and the Tao.

Seventeen syllable thoughts

expressing a way.

*

For great mysteries 

there must be six billion ways 

to say ‘I don’t know’.

*

Combating boredom
is the national pastime.
They call it freedom.