Our Eyes stare no more
\nThey have nothing left to see
\nThere are no more hopes
\nThere are no more dreams
\nLives sucked away as quickly as they came to be
\nPromises, expectations, abilities and accomplishments
\nAll washed away with a few deadly drops
\nTo create such beauty and unity
\nOnly to wither away in vain, due to Your selfish, paranoid yet infallible words
\nThe Massacre of our children, has sealed our fates<\/p>\n
The selfish,
\nThe greedy,
\nThe malicious intent of a man not worthy of his influence and power.
\nSuch seduction, such sweet manipulation
\nThe power to have us live your fears, and taste your tears
\nThe power that tainted our vision from the beauty that is rightfully ours
\nThe years we should have had
\nThe gift of possibility
\nThe journey of life
\nThe life that was rightfully ours
\nThe life before the silence
\nWe willed our happiness into existence
\nThrough blood and sweat
\nThrough hardship inspired by hope and love
\nThrough unity and family, we became one<\/p>\n
You are our savior Father, the answer to the pain that divides us
\nYou challenge it all, you stand as our salvation
\nWho says we cannot be equal?
\nWho says we cannot be one?
\nWho gives them the right to dominate and dictate our existence?
\nYour promises spoke against it
\nYour solution was one of freedom\u2026
\nOf trust
\nOf unity
\nOf family
\nOf life
\nA life worth fighting for
\nA life worth sacrificing for
\nA life worth dying for<\/p>\n
You seemed so righteous, displayed such strength
\nIt was all meant to be
\nYou were the chosen one
\nOur fearless leader
\nOur loving Father<\/p>\n
So we gave you our existence
\nWe gave you our future
\nOur loyalty, our dreams
\nOur youth and our futures
\nWe offered you our souls
\nLead us into Your promised land
\nWe give you our trust
\nLead us away from pain, into brighter days<\/p>\n
Yet…after it all<\/p>\n
Silence now settles over the once bustling complex
\nThe silence that reminds us of what was, and shall never again be
\nThe deafening silence invoked by the absence of life
\nWe gave you all we were
\nWe gave you all we had
\nWe gave you our lives
\nYou promised us unity. And here we lie. United in stench and heat
\nThe brighter day you promised came early
\nIt’s heat scorching our bodies as one\u2026
\nOne race
\nOne color
\nOne fate
\nOne message<\/p>\n
We have paid the ultimate price for our dream
\nWe have made final sacrifice
\nWe gave it all for freedom
\nYet free we are not
\nAnd the dream that we bled for died with us that day.<\/p>\n
How beautiful you were Father
\nHow beautiful the vision you had for us all
\nHow beautiful the sanctuary you bestowed upon us, Father
\nHow beautifully you deceived us all
\nHow selfishly you betrayed all we stood for, Father
\nHow tragically you executed us all
\nWe laid down our lives
\nOur final moments poisoned by your words
\nYour murderous message has been sent<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who do not remember the past…. are condemned to repeat it\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet as time flows forward, quietly we fade from memory
\nThe lesson learned fading as well
\nWe are the Ghosts of November….
\nMemories of all that could have been
\nRemember us…
\nFor we are Scars of the past.<\/p>\n
(Max Botha is a musician in South Africa who says that \u201cmy girlfriend is the Poet\u201d and that she was the one who asked him to try to write. This poem was originally published on <\/i>The Experience Project. His article in this year’s edition of <\/i>the jonestown report is The Pain of Restoring Humanity<\/a>. He may be reached at <\/i>maximuss2072@gmail.com<\/i><\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our Eyes stare no more They have nothing left to see There are no more hopes There are no more dreams Lives sucked away as quickly as they came to be Promises, expectations, abilities and accomplishments All washed away with a few deadly drops To create such beauty and unity Only to wither away in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":40235,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-40238","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40238","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40238"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84385,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40238\/revisions\/84385"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}