Sonnet for the Southern Baptists and Pentecostals

It could have been different but wasn’t

Living in a cult stripped my agency

Family said it was real, but was it?

Left numb in emotional latency

Jesus said love but you taught me to hate

To fear, to not ask questions, to obey

To reject science for the pearly gates

And question my identity each day

Then came college and a new group of friends

With them diversity and acceptance

No longer isolated, watch me mend

Pouring myself into the resistance

Remember what you’re doing isn’t love

And the thoughts you’re having aren’t from above