idea

The Army & Navy Surplus store down the road sells military dog tags for under $10. I’ve always thought a pair of dog tags would be the perfect accessory to several of my shirts. In particular, I have a black dimpled-cotton shirt with a dull silver serpentine pattern stenciled lightly on the chest. A generic gray bead chain disappearing under the un-collared neckline would accentuate the faded silver of the shirt. Any of my long-sleeved gray, silver, or black shirts would benefit from the industrial-looking chain.

Cool, huh? But what would I put on the tag itself? The content of the tag is of the utmost importance. Even though I may always wear it stuffed down the front of my shirt, eventually someone is going to get nosey. The dog tag would have to be profound in its substance, but profundity is difficult when regulated to 5 lines at 17 characters apiece. I am thinking a statement pertaining to the fundamental necessity of universal harmony would be sufficiently appropriate yet incongruous. A pretty little poetic nugget set against the droll metal background would be poetic in and of itself. A haiku would be impeccably sardonic, a traditional Japanese poem stamped on an icon of American military. Five lines are plenty for a haiku and I bet 17 characters are enough for the 5-7-5-syllable format. Ah, this works on so many levels.

Now I need to work on a haiku.
...and so it was written, shenry at 8/04/2003 03:59:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .