I was dealt a challenge last night.

Much like an editor challenged Theodor Geisel he couldn't write a book using 50 words or fewer. Dr. Seuss himself took that challenge and created Green Eggs and Ham. It was one of his most successful children's books. My results won't be all that successful.

A friend challenged me to write haikus about New Jersey. To make it even tougher, they had to be haikus about New Jersey that had something to do with summer. Why? It came up on a recent Friday game night that I dabble in writing rather dark haikus. A haiku is a Japanese poem structure using 17 syllables, typically three lines long with the first and third line having 5 each and the middle having 7. As a weird hobby I wanted to see if I could imagine Charles Bukowski writing haikus. I've done this casually for fun for less than a year. Maybe I'll try to put them in a book someday.

Anyway, enough with the back story. I have been challenged. Now I'm not saying these are going to win any awards, but here's what I came up with.

heading down the shore
toll collector hates her job
ignores me fully


you had the whole beach
yet you set up next to me
people really suck


beach badge checking kid
vapid, smug and so in charge
you'll get yours one day


is it wrong to kill
a seagull who steals my food
asking for a friend


I am Seaside Heights
Snooki and Situation
please leave me alone


smoking on the beach
Action Park, Jet Star, lawn jarts,
so many things gone


greenheads biting me
still not as painful as the
property taxes


a past rip current
haunts my future when I think
it can happen still


please talk louder still
my shut eyes must mean I want
to hear your whole life


Okay, I'll end on a positive note...

Stone Pony, Bar A,
warm beer in soft summer rain
summer is the jam!

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