If a start-up fails in the valley and no one is there to turn off the servers, can I still get free shipping?
Now that some hot air has dissipated from the industry, we asked readers in this challenge to meditate on the present moment — and to do so in haiku form. Once again, we’re delighted with the results.
THE WINNER
Ten thousand stock shares
Papers collecting dust now
Me doing drywall
— Noble Smith
HONORABLE MENTIONS
When profit is nil,
wealth fades faster than the sun.
What would Bezos do?
— Heather L. Barnes
I heard your dot-com
laid you off. That’s too bad. Send
me your risumi?
— Dave Stagner
Fuck your damn options.
This surly civil servant
Won’t get burned like you.
— Curtis Linderman
Cool summer: pink slips
blossoming in Mountain View;
dot-coms bear bitter fruit.
— Nick Sweeney
We will get rich quick.
No real ideas, just Web page.
Whoops! Buyers catch on.
— Josiah Madigan
Foolish to plan to
retire at twenty-seven.
Twenty-nine is fine.
— David Nett
Sixty thousand shares.
Multiply by price per share.
Sixty thousand cents.
— Gence Soysal
Who are these strangers?
A wife? a daughter? a son?
We’re so very rich!
— Paul Mohr
Twenty-four years old,
I’m better off than Dad is.
Wait — not anymore.
— Jennifer Rose Hale
Your valuation?
Price soars. Price tanks. But always
infinite p/e.
— Jim Lambright
Order online now
free shipping mousepad shirt mug
package sent to Mars
— Bernard Chen
millionaire.com
riversofredink.com
bankrupt.com
— David
I will change your world.
B to B me all night long.
Yessss — oh, it’s over.
— Shelly Cohen
The hours worked each day —
Seventeen. Same number of
Flaws in business plan.
— James Crossley
Paper millionaire:
Yesterday it was money;
Today it’s Charmin.
— Ernie Jurick
Hurry go public.
They forgot about profits.
Darn, they remember.
— James W. Black
Dot-coms soar too high.
Their wings are nothing but wax.
They melt in the sun.
— James W. Black
The wind is howling
through the empty cubicles
A dot-com wasteland
— Susan Lewis
Stock options for you
Millions in VC funding
Just don’t drop your soap
— Joshua Sibelman
My nest egg money:
Where is it? Falling tech stocks.
Rotten dot-commies.
— Jeff Taylor
Dot dot dot com
Dash dash dash dot dot dot com
SOS! Send cash!
— Lynn Perry
