Go directly to jail. Do not write a poem. Do not collect $200.

In 2009, an Eygptian civil servant, Moneer Said Hanna was locked up for three years for writing a satirical poem about Hosni Mubarak. He revisits his jail-time in a short piece for the Daily Kos, which includes large citations from older news reports on the matter, and some well-deserved pissed-off gloating about the end of the regime. Here’s the offending, really rather tame poem, proving that political poetry needn't always shout:

Shine, shine whom you shine on all of us
Shine, shine whom you shine wherever you go
No one can shine like you shine
You made people feel confused and lost
You made people feel happy and lost