Abuse Of The Soul

A young child too frightened to sleep

Quivers under the bedclothes,

The eerie glow of the night light

Casts demonic shadows in the gloom,

The preacher’s rant seared into her brain,

"Repent of your sins or face eternal damnation,

Prepare to be cast into the lake of fire!"

God is to be feared and placated,

A celestial bogeyman without mercy,

Watching unmoved as the Souls burn in the inferno.

The adult, damaged by her childhood trauma,

Hates and despises the monster God.

Years pass, she revisits her spirituality,

A new understanding of the Deity is perceived,

God is the power source of purest love,

Wishing to befriend and nurture the wounded psyche.

Withholding this basic Christian truth is

Abuse Of the Soul.

Rose-Mary Gower