This is Anana, a polar bear at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, which is the first state zoo and the largest natural habitat zoo in the world. Anana was having a great time playing in the water when my family and I saw her there recently.

We also saw this warning sign on the upper level of the polar bear exhibit. Both humorous and serious, it certainly caught our attention.

Have you ever noticed a warning sign about something, perhaps funny, perhaps not funny at all. Or maybe there was a time when you very much wished that you had noticed a warning sign. Or maybe you’ve read a tragic news story like the recent one from Texas in which a man mocked a warning sign about alligators and didn’t live to tell the tale. Or maybe you fantasize about posting a warning sign at home, at work, at school, at the airport, on a billboard overlooking a busy highway, etc.

Let’s write haiku about any of those things, whether real or imaginary. It only takes one verse with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. Here’s mine:

Don’t jump in the lake —
gators. But a Texas man
dove right in. Short swim.