[Roger Slater]

I blame the Chinese government.
I am not quite sure how
They did it, but I'm sure it has
To do with Chairman Mao,

The celebrated poet whom
The Chinese most revere.
"These guys write better verse than Mao!
Let's kill Eratosphere!"

[Norman Ball]

This is the NSA.
Our sniffers sussed your tropes.
Reports were that your meter
lay petered on the ropes.

Have you considered terror,
some alternate career?
Our screens are flashing 'error'.
Your rhymes elicit fear.

We'll need to check you keyboard
for nihilistic slant
and question your good judgment
until your tropes recant.

[D.J.H. Bryant]

Script kiddie, lonely boy
with nothing better to do--
shunned poet's lazy ploy
real hackers would eschew.

[Roger Slater]

The world-famous hacker-guy rode in
And said, "I will now put the code in
To take down the Sphere!"
But there's no cause to fear
Because Alex knows more than Ed Snowden.

[Norman Ball]

Mao's Little Red Book
hardly warrants a look.
Mr. Slater's a traitor
to where we must look.

Late Capital's kids
are the culprits du jour.
Though Marx was a hoot
in Duck Soup, to be sure.


(Who's in charge of the Internet kill switch today?)

[Alex Pepple]

Huzzah! we have more posts
of riotous fun verse.
But lo! They’rrrre back today--those ghosts--
at midday, poking at the Host
server for something worse.

But waiting as I was,
I’ve unloosed the trapdoor
again on their digital paws--
quicker this time because,
we’ve got to win this war!

[Norman Ball]

My feet shoot themselves in the feet rather well.
My sublime's like a bat out of minor league hell.
I'm quite hacker enough to the lines that I pen
without taking the flak from some hacker, aged 10.

At the risk of forgoing an honorable mention,
I petition the Pepple for thread intervention.

[Cally Conan-Davies]

I, Cally, of our poet phalanx
Come to honour steward Alex,
Marvel at his techno talents,
Name him something not so simple—
Rise, Sir Hacker-Whacker Pepple!

[Norman Ball]

The Deeper End is eyeing
a Hacker's Almanac
as antidote and analog
for digitized attack.

The challenge is conveyance
By pony, land or sea?
How might one crit without the bits
that flit all crits for free?

In truth, the hacker's lacking
at paper-led attacking.
Without the ether's backing
all bytes take a shellacking

The perfect bound might yet rebound,
the stitch get final say
An analog? Try pen and inking
fricking Groundhog Day.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Norman said:

Alex, I feel you will live to regret this Armistice Day.

I'm starting to understand the import of that message.

( Just kiddding, Norm. It may never happen again in our lifetime.)