A Soul Betrayed Poem by Sarah N. Williams

Had they even bothered
to unearth even the slightest
of my deepest fears...
they might have known...
somehow in their oh-so-closed 'open' minds...
that it was they who held the power...
and power corrupts...
And so it was that I was corrupted,
becoming the antithesis
of their Sunday-mornin'
hodge podge of lies and deceit;
of their 'brother, sister, how'd'ya do,
the Lord Almighty'll come for you
and toast you in a fiery fit of rage and retribution...
but ya be sure ta come back and visit with us again sometime'
spew of festering dogma garbage...
ready to take the wisdom words of 'Love thy neighbor'
and paste it into their oh-so-convenient
spiritual suburb
of cookie-cutter religion, where 'All have sinned
and come short of the glory...'
with the exception of the Pastor's wife,
who OFCOURSE had to be
cream-cheese and strawberries perfection,
lest the congregation frown upon her humanity.
...and oh how I wanted to believe...
and how I TOO was deceived...
As they cradled me in their lulling, strangling, vines
of the comfort of conformity,
I began to choke and spew forth my human nature
in guttering spurts of bible-brainwashed-bile...
crying my anguish of faith-abandoned.
And where was my comforter?
I found no comfort in those 'saints of God'...
as they subtly removed my name from their
cherry-blossom-choosy Christmas card list...

And so my fears of loss and leaving,
of God's betrayal and deceit,
of love in name alone, and not in substance,
were brought to the bitter, stabbing, blinding light of truth.
To think that all my soul longed for,
was to sing it's freedom-spirit song
and bless the souls of even one...
and now that voice is silenced.

And they fear me?