Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Ok, if we feature him, maybe he'll stop

As anyone who reads the comment threads knows by now, SNLII has taken to contributing solely in verse. Here's a snippet from one of his more entertaining long-form efforts (maybe just because it includes "dicked up"):
History hasn't been kind to their bluster,
For every Kitson I can find a Custer
Who dicked up counter-insurgency
Quickly and with urgency,
And with little stragetic luster.
I'll leave you to check out the more ad-hominemy entirety at your discretion. Meanwhile I'll be checking out the comment threads at Kings of War and wishing for the old, analytical prose-focused SNLII to show up.

12 comments:

  1. But surely you must acknowledge
    That Ink Spots ain't Kings College!
    The Dons over there,
    Really don't care
    For verse that's so cutting edge.

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  2. And so what if Betz is at Corfu,
    He still pens a blog or two
    In which I comment with pleasure.
    They suffer my prose in their leisure
    And a limerick they find a rhymed eff-u.

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kings cornered the market in decorum,
    So why try to compete with humdrum?
    Don't you fancy yourself brash?
    A bit of burn, a whole lotta slash?
    And sweet, sweet truth over mere hockum?

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kings cornered the market in decorum,
    So why try to compete with humdrum?
    Don't you fancy yourself brash?
    A bit of burn, a whole lotta slash?
    And sweet, sweet truth over mere hockum?


    Ok, this last is my clear favorite, and it's not even close.

    ReplyDelete
  5. YOu have another option, of course,
    Come ride on my Facebook horse,
    She's a trim filly indeed,
    Maybe a colt, perhaps a steed,
    And the rhymes there I don't outsource.

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  6. And as for the "ad homine-y,"
    Don't be such a ninny.
    "SNLII" is a voice, an avatar,
    He's not the real man by far,
    Mean words no more than a whinny.

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, maybe it's a verbal tic,
    Or I'm some tragic dyslexic
    Who can't spell "strategy"
    Without putting a G before the T
    And making myself very sick.

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, thanks to you guys - and others - I've been reading Kings of War (plus more blogs on various blogrolls). You all probably figured that out with the blog all linked in the comments.

    (I, too, hope the prose avatar returns. Remember, you are educating some of us. It's done some good, hasn't it? It means something, doesn't it?)

    ReplyDelete
  9. SNLII
    A poetry anthology would be the next logical step.

    Or indeed a truly Homeric affair in hexameter verse detailing the epic conflicts of OIF and OEF etc.

    To paraphase my favourite NY poet of the 21st century - If you can't do it - it cant be done.

    Ramzi N.

    ReplyDelete
  10. SNLII sent you an essay by Gumz
    That calls into question the sums
    Cyphered by many prominent COINdinistas
    But not the boys yelling "Meestah-meestah!"
    To wannabe Andrew Exums.

    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ramzi my words are doggerel,
    But they clang like a bell
    Warning against a certain story
    Dominant in cheap allegory
    That posits an ACU-clad devil or angel.

    Who gets it? Who does not?
    That's really a pedant's plot,
    Because some pundits know as many guerillas
    As I do talking purple-assed chinchillas,
    And how is that a cheap shot?

    The problem, as I said before,
    Is that beyond all the battle gore
    A salient reality often intrudes,
    One that spares us the pious beatitudes
    Of the rabid COINdinistas at the door.

    All COIN, verily, is local and specific,
    Failing to note that can be horrific
    To practitioners on the battlefield
    Cause ignorance makes a porous shield
    And is anything but scientific.

    One can borrow "lessons" from history
    Pulling examples from a scholar's armory
    But in the end one reads a bitter footnote:
    Every enemy, every foe, gets his vote
    So the rest is merely condemnatory.

    Limericks here are my chosen art,
    To play a fool's role, a crazy part,
    Talking truth to those who find it queer
    That I'm a latter day visit from Lear,
    Betwixt dragon, wrath and the human heart.


    SNLII

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great stuff - SNLII Il Magnifico!

    ReplyDelete

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