super duper

duplicity. duplicitous.
just dopey.

we respect one
another to sustain
the world––
to feed our
children––
to co-exist with our
brothers

civilizations wither
for want of
trust

negotiations
honor a ground of
win-win compromise––
few are still-born
zero-sum
debaucheries

some negotiators are
cheats––
who bleed the good
faith of trading to
death &

who walk away
crowing to
themselves
leaving chaos &
mayhem in their
oblivious
wake

such is the high
cost of
conscienceless
selfishness

there is one
common ethic
in the kingdom of the human––
do no harm
to others

a black hole is
a dead star that
blindly swallows
matter––

a black heart
gorges a greedy
ego on the well-
being of others––

it is an over-heated
executor of pain,
suffering & smoldering
waste who fills a
counting house with
tarnished gold

some egos never give
& only take––

the id wears sharp,
tailored suits &
pricey ties––

it boasts how sharing
is for nursery schools &
wimps

too much honesty
is bad for
business––
& too much fairness
can damage a one-sided
deal

why pay taxes
when you can ride the
roads for
free?
& let some other dupes
pay the cost of
liberty?

if you can pay a
sleazy team of lawyers
to squeezy the un-
intended consequences
out of the law––

it turns out
cheating is as legal as
apple pie

when every promise is
a clever contradiction
the big-bad-guy always
seems to
win

karma is the moral
memory of
life & lifetimes
that eventually fills
the vacuum of
anger & despair
with love &
kindness

duplicity is a bubble
that bursts

iniquity grinds
to an end

& the wizard of orange is
revealed as
a babbling huckster
spirited away
in a blustering, hot-air
balloon