“A young girl’s story” by Bunny Jackson

This little girl’s story

is no real glory

I have mentioned this once before

but I thought I’d share with you once more

When I was 7

I was told that Peoples Temple was heaven

and over time

Jim Jones controlled my mind

I cannot begin to explain

the turmoil and unbearable pain

I would have taken the cyanide

and I would’ve been part of the mass suicide

On November eighteen

I could not believe what I had seen

I was only sixteen

what I do recall

that I did not believe anything at all

I was scheduled to go by plane

but my grandmother had to remain

delay with legal documents made things slow

at that time, I was unable to go

When it was reported that 300 were dead

I believed what Jim Jones always had said

that he would raise ‘em all from the dead

and this belief remained for months in my head

I waited and waited for the dead to rise

but this never happened, still I was not surprised

then I learned that Jim Jones was dead

he had been shot by a single gun shot to the head

Now the press was telling me

he was cremated and his ashes thrown to the sea

I did not believe and I needed to see

this could not be and this could not happen to me

He turned water into wine

he could heal the blind

he could heal the sick

and I believed this was real and not any tricks

all he had to say

is "drop dead" and there you lay

then he spoke and you awoke

this was no joke

through meditation

he made many revelation

he knew what to say

and more people would joined that day

cancer he could heal

I believed this to be real

he could make the paralyzed walk

and the mute talk

My beliefs were so very strong

in my eyes, Jim Jones could do no wrong

was everything he said really a lie

he sent people to Guyana only to die

or was this a story told by the FBI

In my mind

Jim Jones was kind

I did not know how to react

when I was told that Jim Jones was a maniac

The Jim Jones I had known

was of peace and love and this he had shown

Guyana was suppose to be a socialist community

were there would be complete equality

it was impossible to conceive

that so many Jim Jones had deceived

what I did not realize

that my faith would have led to my demise

He told me that I would go to a promise land

where there’s peace for every child, woman,and man

he promised me that I would be free

from racism and injustice in this society

There were so many rainbow faces

I only knew the human race

he preached integration

and denounced segregation

people said that I was bless that I escaped

but this is truly a mistake

the day of the mass suicide

I also died

but that chapter in my life

makes my heart feel it’s been pierced with a knife

I have now come to realize

that most of what I believed were simply lies

It was so very difficult for me to see

the Jim Jones who had been presented to me

Indeed, I had been traumatized

this experience had been seen from a child’s eye’s

to say that this was all a game

 it is a shock to me and it is a shame

I was that child who believed

and that child who had been deceived

I am that little girl

indeed, destroyed was my world

this little girl’s story

is no real glory

(Bunny Jackson is a Temple survivor who lives in Northern California. She may be reached at icubunn@yahoo.com.)