Question Mark

© 22 April 2007, The Griot Poet

Cho-Seung Hui at 23 had enough of reserved occidental polity.

“You can’t hear me” rang loud and clear from his murderous spree on the anniversary of Holocaust survivors, preceding Adolph Hitler’s birth by four days.

A door blocked by Professor Liviu Librescu heroically to ensure his students could flee through a second floor window avoiding another needless tragedy.

At 23, he walked under the same spell as the demoniac, dwelling among the dead, breaking fetters, possessed by Legion, the same cast ages ago at another time into a herd of swine.

If
“The joy of the LORD is our strength,”
Then
This man was void.

Since a boy,
Weakened by
Masculine expectations
Of pride, honor and strength in violent machinations:

Rambo,
Commando,
The Specialist,
The Terminator…

Manhood in America

Celebrates

“Strong and silent,”
“Big boys don’t cry,”

Congratulates

Players,
(Name-the-sport) winners

Denigrates

The emotionally expressive male

The (name-the-art) creative

As gay…

On the day he decided was his last

The die he cast in arcane numerology

Matching numerically in bodies (excluding his own)

The age of Christ at His crucifixion: 33.

He was an instant hit. The sordid deed documented in multimedia flit from web sites to print to pod cast.

This will repeat and last

Until we

Treat the mentally ill

(Not as a “question mark”), but

With the same regard

As physical maladies!