Five Haikus for the Falling

A News Response Poem

I. 
Shadows drift downward,
Old fires flicker, unresolved,
Stillness grips the earth.

II. 
Regimes look so strong, 
Until they don't. They crumble, 
Futures turn to ash.

III. 
The wheel turns again,
Choices cast like stones in streams,
Sorrow's bitter sting.

IV. 
Footsteps lost in dust, 
Echo through the broken streets, 
Darkness now descends.

V. 
Scars upon the land, 
Beware falling pillars. Peace, 
a fragile hope.

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Author’s Note: This poem was sparked by Thomas Friedman’s NY Times column on 6/13/25 called “How to Think About What’s Happening With Iran and Israel.”

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