17

SATURDAY

Strong syllables sing

Words pitched headlong in combat

Who will judge their worth?

Oh! Mariposa!

Graveyard of poetic hopes!

Field of fierce battle!

Bleak Saturday night

Works of gladiator bards

Strewn in bloody heaps

What verse master dare

To put the “bash” in Basho

Take the lofty prize!

David Cheng hosts a Haiku Kontest tonight; the syllable-counting and short-form poetic license to ill commences at 8 p.m. at Mariposa Center for Artistic Expression, 5000 Berwyn Road, College Park. $5. (301) 513-9422. (RB)