If the federal government shuts down tonight, taking the D.C. government along with it, public libraries around the District will be closed. Which means the second annual haiku contest at the Cleveland Park branch, scheduled to end tomorrow, may not go as planned! (Timed to coincide with the Cherry Blossom Festival, contest entries must be handed in person to library staffers, the entry form says. A winner is to be announced Thursday.)
Inspired by the budget fight and the sadness that must surely be sweeping Cleveland Park right now, Washington City Paper decided to run our own contest for the best haiku about the government shutdown. After the jump, take a look at some efforts by City Paper writers. Leave yours in the comments—and for the purposes of this contest, all haiku must be one line of five syllables, one line of seven, and one line of five.
Michael Grass
Drunken Hill staffers
Watching Rome burn with malaise
With no BlackBerries
Jonathan L. Fischer
Last shutdown’s lesson:
Zookeepers, don’t pile shit in
Parking lot. Thank you!
Lydia DePillis
Giant pandas, feh
NIH bacteria
Are dying, people!
Darrow Montgomery
Tumbleweeds on Mall
Tourists crying to be fed
To the lion’s den
Alex Baca
A shutdown will be
A great revenue boost for
Museums that charge fees
I am so glad that
I live on the third story.
Smaller chance of rats!
Alan Suderman
Parking Enforcement
Didn’t like you anyway
Essential? Never
Megan Arellano
It’s five-seven-five?
More like no more nine to five.
That’s not poetry.
Rend Smith
Republicans want
Cuts; we, representation
Now you know how we feel, jerks
Benjamin R. Freed
D.C. made lawless
chance to park anywhere and
say, “Take that, Zipcar.”
Mike Madden
Recycling piles up,
Trash cans overflow downtown.
Feds’ gift to D.C.
William F. Zeman
This haiku couldn’t
Be completed because the
Legislators were…
Michael Schaffer
Garbage piling upBut red state loons are smilingGov’ment’s off our back