Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire

SHERPATUDE NO. 26: "HUMOR IS A COMBAT MULTIPLIER ..." Has your war become workaday? Does life on the Forward Operating Base (FOB) now seem commonplace? Armed with deadpan snark and poker-faced patriotism-and rooted in the coffee-black soil and plain-spoken voice of the American Midwest-journalist-turned-poet Randy Brown reveals behind-the-scenes stories of U.S. soldier-citizenship. From Boot Camp to Bagram, Afghanistan. And back home again.

Here's a taste:

Three Cups of Chai-ku

1.
I had hoped, I guess,
for something more like Starbucks,
not yellow water.

2.
We build our nations one tea party at a time.
They serve, we protect.

3.
No one here can lead this endless talk of action.
"Que shura, shura."