Haboob Haiku

Did you have a tough day at the office? Well, who cares, because I know I did.

What does a man do when he's had one of those days? Simple. He writes a form of Japanese poem known as a haiku. They consist of seventeen on, or phonetic phrases, divided into lines of five, seven, and five respectively. Most western languages associate on with syllables, even though the comparison does not always apply.

Earlier this year, there was a trend on Twitter -- hey, now we're getting down to a serious art form, aren't we? -- for composing haikus about a type of dust storm in the Southwestern states known as a haboob. They use an Arabic word to describe them. Don't ask me why.

Here is a list of ten of my favorites from that time:

loungecreature ‏@loungecreature
Tucson gets monsoons / But we settle for haboobs / This counts as weather?

Blazer0x ‏@Blazer0x
Haboob incoming. / Did you wash your car today? / It is all for nought.

Heavy Duty Trucking ‏@HDTrucking
Truckers watch for storms / Professionals pull over / Wait out blowing dust

Reuters Top News ‏@Reuters
Harsh southwest dust storms / Cause problems for some drivers / Haikus might change that

Adam Kress ‏@KressOnBusiness
The sky becomes brown / The wind blows all over town / My pool makes me frown

Will Watson ‏@will_watson
You're not a Jedi / This is not Tatooine, Luke / Pull over now, man.

Alan Patton ‏@alan_patton
Dust; hot wind turns cool / Blink on. Leave hard top. douse lights. / Ha! Boobs won't collide.

Christi Driggs ‏@ChristiDriggs
Tsunami dust wave / Swallows you; spits out your bones, / tumbleweeds and ghosts

Barbara MacDonald ‏@macbarb44
Daylight disappears!/ Stop quickly so you don't get / A haboob boo-boo.

kane stanford ‏@kanethedestro
Like Mom always says / It's dangerous to drive while ... / Looking at haboobs

Suddenly I feel moved to compose my own.

David L Alexander @manwithblackhat
an arabic word / for describing a dust storm / press “1” for english

And so it goes ...