My Witty Shirts are More Interesting Than I

I've got some t-shirts that I purchased a while back that have funny sayings on them. I bought them because they say to the world, "Look at me and my capitalistic tendencies!" I get comments on one of them every time I wear it. The slogan says, "Meat is Murder. Tasty, Tasty Murder." It always gets at least one person to come up to me and say, "I like your shirt." Then they giggle as they walk away. I wish they'd give me a hug, or at least a five. I am desperate for human contact...

I've got another shirt that reads:

"Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator."

I think this is hilarious, but no one ever approaches me with the same response as the "Meat" shirt. I thought it was due to the fact that the "Meat" shirt is pink and the "Haiku" is brown. Then I had someone staring at it with a half-smile on their face as if they were desperately trying to understand it, but decided to fake it to humor me. Then I explained that haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that contains five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and then five in the last line. Then they looked at it again, smiled wider as they counted out the syllables, and then said, "Oh, I get it," and walked away. I knew in my soul that they did not, however, "get it."

How can some people not know of this art form? I know I studied it in school, if even for a short period. Is it simply due to the fact that I live in one of the more ethnocentric areas of America, Texas? Is it the rapidly declining standards of our school systems literary cirriculums? I know poetry is the least enjoyed area of said cirriculums, but it's still something that, I feel, should be covered. There are many poets that, for the life of me, I can't wrap my head around the meaning, but I can still appreciate the art. Haiku is such an easy form of poetry too. I thought of this one as I was driving around today, yearning for the autumn of my youth:

Leaves floating to Earth.
Bright colors are plentiful.
Beautiful Autumn.

It's not a great one, but it gets the point across, right?