A Situation Report from FOB Haiku

Entries in the ongoing "Boonie's Haiku Contest," in which Red Bull Rising blog readers are encouraged to wax poetic regarding FOB life downrange and/or the 1980s TV show "China Beach," have ranged from the sublime ... to the profane ... to the sublimely profane.

So far, readers and writers from Doctrine Man!!, The Duffel Blog, America's Sergeant Major, The Journal of Military Experience, and even the 34th Infantry Division Association have submitted entries.

The contest specifies a haiku form with lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each. Here's a quick and random sampling of a few entries that arrived last week:

Eight deployments down
most surreal thing I've seen is
KAF's TGIF

*****

This summer sandstorm
Couldn’t blind the first sergeant
To my day-old shave.

*****

A circling bird calls:
War on TV is phoned-in,
COIN-operated

*****

Where is the Kandak?
Alone at the command post.
Oh, it's Thursday night!

*****

Sprint in a flight suit
Long tarmac, rip my crotch
Warm Iraq breezes

*****

Our trucks move like ducks
waddling between ponds and now
stuck in this wadi

*****

Silly pogue don't know
Gunslingers don't drink lattes
Macchiato sir?

*****

Sh-- in the shower?!
Why in the f--- would someone
Sh-- in the shower?!

Inspired by these musings? Boonie is still accepting entries until March 18, 2013. Winners will be announced March 25.

Prizes include a $200 boxed set of "China Beach," an autographed and personalized copy of David Abrams' 2012 novel "Fobbit," and a "Blue Falcon" mug created by Doctrine Man!!

Click here for more contest details, including how to enter.