UPDATED SHAKESPEARIAN HAIKU *
To be; not to be;
These options nail the question,
"Why bear Fortune's woes?"
Lead samurai-SEALS
Against Hokusai's "Great Wave",
Or halt tsunamis?
Death curtails REM-sleep,
Avoids defibrillation,
Cures anginal bouts.
The consummation?
End ills that flesh is heir to;
Devoutly that's wished.
Make your quietus --
Bare bodkins, available,
Provide an off-ramp.
(A few may prefer
The rite of harakiri,
Per Clavell's "Shogun").
Otherwise, why bear
Badly sung karaoke,
Life's weary fardels,
Whips and scorns of time,
Head honcho's contumely,
The crowded onsen,
Smart-alec geishas,
Lawsuits' judicial delay,
And long-lived phone-queues?
Die, sleep; dreams might loom,
When mortal coil's shuffled off,
As grim show-stopper.
Post-mortem -- we dread
Puzzling lack of videos,
Cancelled return flights.
Un-Googled country --
Dubious travel ratings,
Makes wimps of us all.
Currents turned awry,
Even pithy enterprise
Scares off investors.
* Author's Note: These verses fit with "CHAIKU", our tongue-in-cheek designation for the rigid 17-syllable haiku-in-English format taught to schoolchildren. We have used this format personally for dozens of verses appearing recently on our blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", and remotely in a 2003 medical journal presentation entitled, "Seventeen haiku verses ... " You can read more about chaiku HERE.
Readers might also enjoy our illustrated poems "Hamlet at the pub", and "Hamlet's fardels", and our earlier songs "The Play's A Sting" and "The Wreck of the Danish Royalty".
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ADVENTURES OF LINGUIST LESLIE MOORE
compact summary:
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