Verses from Headlines in the New York Times -- The Urgent Search for a Cyber Silver Bullet Against Iran -- Closing My Curtains for Xi Jinping and His Grand Parade -- Tour Operator Thomas Cook Collapses.

The soldiers in their barracks laze

as we approach the Cyber Days

when algorithms fight our wars

with nerds who fill up all our corps.

A virus placed with great aplomb

is better than an atom bomb.

We'll take Tehran without a shot,

cuz no gun can compete with bot.

@SangerNYT  @julianbarnes

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Beijing loves a big parade

cuz it covers their charade

of free people marching to

democratic ballyhoo.

Marching puppets making show.

(Reminds me of Pinocchio.)

Western writers, please don't look;

we're afraid you'll cock a snook!

@HernandezJavier

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A tourist from England did mutter:

"That Thomas Cook sure is a nutter

for stranding me where

the natives just stare

and offer me tea with yak butter."

@mwolgelenter

"Poetry never fed an orphan . . . "