<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Off List, the Bard Speaketh</title>
<style>
<!--
p { MARGIN: 0px; }
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>List Wars<br /><br />How oft we do snivel, o'er twaddle and drivel<br />While tempers and nostrils flare,<br />When Live and Let Live'l be so much more civil<br />(Or does anyone really still care?)<br /><br />The big question, however, is how folks endeavor<br />(While hurling mud, willy-nilly),<br />To keep themselves clean, no matter how mean,<br />Over stuff that's really so silly.<br /><br />And while I'm confused as to why words are used<br />To wound those who'd be better as friends,<br />Can we not call a truce and stop this abuse,<br />Perhaps rethink each message one sends?<br /><br />You have to wonder (when all's said and done<br />And the wounded lie bleeding): Who actually won?<br />And sometimes, too, with all that todo,<br />Are cyberwars all that much fun?<br /><br />These Internet blokes hurling barbs, telling jokes<br />(Near anonymous, though they may be),<br />Are often defending what they ought to be ending<br />To save their own sanity.<br /><br />And yet ... I marvel <br /><br />That folks with their skin so exceedingly thin<br />(You usually can see right through 'em)<br />Are able to function despite this compunction<br />To spit forth words, and then rue 'em.<br /><br />After all ...<br /><br />When one's skin IS so painfully thin,<br />How DOES one keep one's insides in?<br /><br />Alan Barnard<br />Sometime Supersillyass Poet from Salem, MO<br /><br /></p>
</body>
</html>