Ft. Hood - Nidal Malik Hasan Poem by Deena Metzger

A man has killed his fellow men.
What did we expect?
We asked him to kill his relatives,
but after years of listening to our war stories,
he broke and then killed ours.
We do the same each day.
When will we stop lying about who we have become?
Killing is what we train our children to do.
We devote our lives to tools
of torture, pain and devastation.
We have invented war
as it has never been before.
It cost his soul, and many lives,
but we pay well for the business.

Better if we had all been on our knees
alongside him on his prayer rug,
asking forgiveness,
or walking the long circular path
up the mountain of shame and regret.

It is so simple, my dears,
if we love murder,
it will love us back.