NaPoWriMo - 2021 - XII - New, improved model army

 New, improved model army

Infantry Drill Regulations

This manual covers a wide range of basic standards for the infantry. Topics covered include: Orders, commands, and signals. Combat leadership. Combat reconnaissance. Fire superiority. Deployment for attack. Advancing the attack. The fire attack. The charge. Pursuit. Attack of fortifications. Holding attack. Defensive positions and entrenchments. Deployment for defense. Defensive counterattack. Delaying action. Machine guns. Ammunition supply. Mounted scouts. Night operations. Infantry against Cavalry. Artillery supports. Entrenchments. Patrols. Marches. Training and discipline. Protection of the march. Camp sanitation. Protection of camp or bivouac. Ceremonies and inspections. Honors and salutes. Bugle calls. Bugle call music notations. Bayonet usage.

never been in a trench under bombardment,
never fought a land war in Asia (tm), but have
encountered
manuals

Over 1000 manuals were produced during the 14-18 war.

the moment
out in the forward trenches
when the instruction book arrives
and the Captain thinks he'll find out
what he's doing

Finally!  The updated manual,
could have done with this last week,
when Anderson's squad got caught out on the wire,
but now I've got the actual pages
here in my dugout and I'll read
it if the artillery barrage eases up
a little
Sergeant! Stop blubbering man! Try to keep quiet while I read...
Now let's see, is there anything about
drowning in mud
or when all the medical staff have dysentery?
No... Well what is in here?
What's this: "Threat from Machine Guns", let's see?
Fuck. What--

the authority figure Captain
so the other authorities like to think
secretly missing his Mum
and publicly sinks as far into the quag
stinks as badly in the latrines

No nothing sergeant, just thinking out loud.
I am sure it won't apply to us...
I wonder if they have a chapter
on maintaining the will to live?
On remembering what was the point?

NaPoWriMo - 2021 - XI - An ontology of everything (excerpt)

 An ontology of everything (excerpt)

the wind; the wind in rushes; the wind in rushes

at low to moderate speed;

the wind; the wind in corn; the wind in corn in fields

where rabbits were born;

the wind in burrows; the wind in earth-dug tunnels in general;
the wind past irregular entryways, heard from within;
similar, but felt; similar, but seen (c.f. leaves; litter);
the wind; the wind when breezy;
the breeze in willow trees; willow trees in spring;

willow trees in autumn;

the breeze across water; the breeze through trees

onto the water; ditto but in reverse;

places beside water; docks, boathouses and jetties;
the wind on water when it is more than a breeze;

the wind making ripples on water;

large bodies of fresh water,

where the wind leaves a long still wavy stripe 

along the whole length;

similar at sunset; similar under moonlight;

or when any sort of light source aligns with the stripe;

subset of this when alone; when in a crowd;

with one person; 

with a particular person; 

with you.

NaPoWriMo - 2021 - X - Dierdre Frank, writing as Bernard Mane...

Dierdre Frank, writing as Bernard Mane

reviewed by

Edmund Drake, writing as Elizabeth Loften



A book-like book of wordy lines I read
it on the train in Leicester signalling
my great cerebral worthiness to all
newspaper readers in my view.  I will review

this for the TLS because I know
it's a pseudonym of the Prof who supervised
my Ph.D. and he will broadly blow
his gasket the moment that he reads
the words I'll write.

I have already listed certain phrases
not damning in themselves but from which
certain words -- "commonplace", "quotidian" -- will jam
right in his unswallowable craw, or more like
caltrops beneath his -- there's another
"pedestrian"...

...but really this is wasted effort here
spending my time to damn a new-wrought book
which before I pick it up already spends
longer on

"About the typeface"

than on
the author's
bio.