Doctor held in Ft. Hood killings: 12 dead, 31 hurt
Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2009
Listen to Marvin read Berserker
Berserk—interesting word—from Old Norse.
A warrior with insufficient zeal
Would don a bearskin robe, kill all remorse,
Abandon his humanity, reveal
What horrors rage, unfettered, can project.
The bearskin robe’s passé—now, festered minds,
God-driven, grotesquely armed, twisted, flecked
With certainty, accept commands divined.
That ancient Norse berserker killed for loot—
Nasty? Sure. Yet one has obligations,
A family (the moral issue’s moot!),
Got to pay the rent, defend the nation.
But Dr. Hasan and his ilk display
A self-contempt, a presence—whipped, scored, flayed—
Shrunk, without significance. How can one
Spark attention? Massacre! Snap, shriek, stun!
We’d all be spared, had they been better paid,
Or warmly loved, and, often, nicely laid.
(11/9/09)