{"id":109975,"date":"2021-05-12T09:50:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T16:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=109975"},"modified":"2021-10-14T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T00:39:00","slug":"the-jonestown-odes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=109975","title":{"rendered":"The Jonestown Odes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ode To Larry Layton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Jones stole your wife, Carolyn
\nYet you remained loyal to him
\nJim Jones had sex with your second wife, Karen
\nWho knows how many times
\nYet you remained loyal to him<\/p>\n

Jim Jones deprived you of good food, good drink,
\nSleep, peace and quiet
\nWith his voice blaring on the loud speakers of Jonestown
\nNight and day
\nYet you remained loyal to him<\/p>\n

Jim Jones deprived you of restrooms with privacy
\nFree from odor
\nYet you remained loyal to him
\nHe deprived you of toilet paper
\nYet you remained loyal to him<\/p>\n

Jim Jones deprived you of vacations and
\nGoing to plays, movie theaters and rock concerts
\nSports events, eating in restaurants
\nAnd the opportunity to attend high quality university classes
\nYet you remained loyal to him<\/p>\n

Jim Jones deprived you of choosing what job you wanted to do
\nAlmost every waking moment of yours was given to him
\nIn essence, you had no freedom
\nYet you remained loyal to him
\nAnd were willing to kill for him<\/p>\n

For Jim Jones you shot Vernon Gosney three times
\nAnd Monica Bagby twice
\nIn the little airplane on the little airstrip
\nIn Port Kaituma on that deadly day
\nSaturday November 18th, 1978<\/p>\n

Why?
\nWhat made you remain loyal to Jim Jones no matter what?
\nDid his sermons make you feel high?
\nDid the camaraderie of the group give you
\nAn incredibly powerful sense of family?
\nDid his sermons make you feel powerful?<\/p>\n

Did you believe Jim Jones truly had the healing power
\nThat he pretended to have during long church services
\nWhen he raised up rotten chicken gizzards and
\nProclaimed that he had removed cancer?<\/p>\n

When your beloved mother, Lisa, was dying
\nIn horrible pain for weeks
\nBecause Jim Jones had taken her cancer meds
\nAnd painkillers for himself
\nDidn\u2019t you hate Jim Jones just a little bit?<\/p>\n

If Jim Jones had any power to heal cancer
\nWhy didn\u2019t he save your mother who gave him
\nMore than $200,000 and an heirloom statue
\nThat was treasured by your family?<\/p>\n

Were you ever angry that Jim Jones was a pathological liar
\nAnd you couldn\u2019t believe one word he said?
\nWere you ever mad that you weren\u2019t supposed to
\nEven contact your father
\nBecause he was not a member of Peoples Temple?
\nAs an American citizen, your dad had the right to
\nFreedom of religion according to the Constitution
\nBut not according to Jim Jones<\/p>\n

Did you think Jim Jones was kidding when he had everyone
\nParticipate in suicide drills during \u201cWhite Nights\u201d?
\nDid you tell yourself that things would get better so
\nThere would be no need for \u201cRevolutionary Suicide\u201d in the future?
\nWhat do you think now?
\nDo you think that too much optimism can be deadly?<\/p>\n

When Jim Jones told you to go out and
\nShoot down the airplane of \u201cdefectors\u201d
\n(who were just church members trying to leave Jonestown)
\nDid you ever think maybe they had the
\nRight to choose where they wanted to live?<\/p>\n

Why not let people have the freedom to
\nLive where they want to live?
\nIf a New Yorker is cold and unhappy
\nAnd wants to move to Hawaii,
\nWhy not allow it?
\nWhy should all the decisions be up to one leader–
\nOne dictator?<\/p>\n

Being born and raised in America,
\nDid you ever think your fellow church members
\nDeserved human rights and
\nHad a right to live in a democracy
\nInstead of a dictatorship?<\/p>\n

Did you think it was hypocritical for Jim Jones
\nTo profess to be anti-drug and anti-booze and
\nYet his words were sometimes so slurred
\nThey were impossible to understand
\nBecause he obviously was addicted himself?<\/p>\n

Did you ever think it was unfair
\nThat Jim Jones could have sex with anybody he wanted\u2014
\nMarried or not, male or female
\nWhen nobody else was allowed to have sex
\nWithout approval of the Relationship Committee
\nBecause sex would be a distraction from
\nFocusing on Socialism?<\/p>\n

Did you believe Jim Jones\u2019 lies that he was a healer
\nAnd that he was the reincarnation of Christ
\nWho could raise the dead
\nAnd yet Jim Jones wouldn\u2019t save the lives of your mom or
\nThe other seven people who died in Jonestown
\nBefore the massacre took place?<\/p>\n

Did you know that Jim Jones was saving up cyanide
\nOr that he was buying up guns, pistols, rifles, shotguns
\nAnd cross-bows with the intent of forcing people at gunpoint
\nTo take cyanide or be shot to death?<\/p>\n

Did you know that the leadership group in Jonestown
\nEven considered chopping off the heads of every church member\u2014
\nEven children\u2019s heads?<\/p>\n

When Jim Jones told you to go kill people in the plane,
\nDid you think he would kill you if you refused?
\nDid part of you want to be assertive and say, \u201cNo\u201d
\nBut was the rest of you too afraid?<\/p>\n

Did you think following his command
\nWas the right thing to do?
\nDid it ever flash in your mind to
\nJust leave with the \u201cdefectors\u201d and
\nNot follow Jones\u2019 orders?<\/p>\n

I would like to know what you thought then
\nAnd what you think now
\nI would like to know how you felt then
\nAnd how you feel now
\nWhat was going through your mind
\nBefore, during and after the massacre
\nAnd before, during, and after your trials?<\/p>\n

What about the eighteen years you spent in prison?
\nWhat were your brain waves doing in those years?
\nCould you have kicked yourself for following the orders of someone
\nSo sick, deranged and paranoid?<\/p>\n

Are you sorry you threw so much of your life away
\nAnd caused so much pain and destruction to others
\nWhile you were under the influence of such a punitive man
\nWho was probably so physically ill
\nFrom so many years of substance abuse and stress
\nLacking sleep, exercise and healthy eating habits
\nThat he was about ready to die himself\u2014
\nProbably within a month or two without his being shot?<\/p>\n

Inquiring minds want to know<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Ode To Deborah Layton<\/strong><\/p>\n

I admire your courage
\nI admire your smarts
\nI admire your compassion and
\nEfforts to save the people of Jonestown<\/p>\n

You tried to open the eyes of Congress
\nAnd rescue everyone
\nBut Congress had trouble believing that a
\nMan of the cloth with such a high reputation
\nOf being a fighter for civil rights
\nCould be doing such dastardly deeds!<\/p>\n

How could the Winner of the Martin Luther King Award
\nDo these things?
\nIt\u2019s mind-boggling!<\/p>\n

Could the Reverend Jim Jones really be torturing people?
\nCould he really be throwing dissidents into an underground box
\nWhere they were roasting in darkness and
\nSuffering without enough food and water
\nFor days?<\/p>\n

Was Jonestown really an armed encampment
\nWithholding passports
\nWith a guard tower looming above
\nSurrounded by numerous guards
\nPatrolling night and day
\nWith pistols, rifles, shot-guns and crow-bows?<\/p>\n

Was Jim Jones actually leading suicide drills?
\nWhy? Had he really turned that paranoid?<\/p>\n

You escaped Jonestown and rang the alarm
\nMost of Congress wasn\u2019t ready to hear you
\nCongressman Ryan was brave and compassionate
\nBut he had no idea of what he was walking into
\nIt was the realm of madness
\nIt made no sense
\nBut you warned him
\nYou warned everybody
\nIn your Affidavit and your pleadings to Congress!<\/p>\n

You and the people of Jonestown
\nWere deprived of good food, good drink
\nPeace and quiet and sleep for so long
\nIt\u2019s amazing you could even think enough
\nTo plot your difficult escape<\/p>\n

You tried to figure out a way to save your mom
\nBut there really was no way to do it
\nYou tried to figure out how to save your brother, Larry
\nBut how could you do it?
\nHe wound up as a shooter
\nWho had to spend eighteen years in prison<\/p>\n

I have to thank you for writing your book,
\nSeductive Poison
\nIt\u2019s my favorite book of all time
\nIt\u2019s exciting
\nIt\u2019s emotional
\nIt\u2019s compassionate
\nIt\u2019s amazing
\nIt opened my eyes!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m waiting for the movie version
\nActually I would watch many movie versions
\nOf your insightful and powerful book
\nPerhaps every ten years a new adaptation of your book
\nCould be filmed
\nAnd wind up winning many Academy Awards!
\nI\u2019m waiting with bated breath!<\/p>\n

(Editor’s note<\/strong>: Linda Kime became fascinated with Jonestown when she heard Leslie Wagner-Wilson speak at the Mensa Annual Gathering in Phoenix in 2019. Linda lives in L.A. and writes screenplays, children\u2019s books and speeches for Toastmasters.\u00a0Her other contribution to this site is Terror in Jonestown<\/a>. She can be reached at timeforarticles@yahoo.com<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ode To Larry Layton Jim Jones stole your wife, Carolyn Yet you remained loyal to him Jim Jones had sex with your second wife, Karen Who knows how many times Yet you remained loyal to him Jim Jones deprived you of good food, good drink, Sleep, peace and quiet With his voice blaring on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":111220,"menu_order":45,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-109975","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109979,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109975\/revisions\/109979"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}