"Among the Berserkers"
By Ben Fortier
A writer in a war.
Capable of violence,
And all too aware
Of its dire consequences.
Among him stood the berserkers.
How they were ravenous with bloodlust.
Their hands mangled
From dozens of prior fistfights.
Their arms and shoulders bulked,
Ready to haul the massive weight
Of their heavy armaments.
He watched their rage.
How it would consume the battlefield.
Knocking down combatants
With well-placed shots
From a rifle
Or a fist;
Laughing in the heat of the fight,
Unconcerned with their own well-being.
The writer felt the craze.
How it all changed
When a long day took a handful
Of their brothers away.
Firing his weapon blindly in anger,
As they covered a Marine crawling through
The puddle of fluids that soaked the highway;
A slurry of anti-freeze, diesel, and blood.
Even that night
The berserkers prayed,
To stack the bodies of their enemies,
And find a way out of that place.
Native Rhode Islander and proclaimed Renaissance Man, Iraq vet He is the author of Stones of the Wooded Valley and The Silent Whispers of Omens. His latest book PHANTOMS, covers his deployment to Iraq in '06-'07. Ben is the 2024 recipient of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Robert A. Gannon award for original poetry dealing with Marine Corps Life.
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