Donna Y. Orme-Collins is a former cult member who shares her experiences through poetry. The following poem expresses the intense feelings and emotions involved in being in a cult and growing up in one. [read more poems...]

Donna Y. Orme-Collins

LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS
Arizona - September 24, 1992

Always waiting
To tear me apart
To fix me up good
These miniature Messiahs
To burn away the fat
To take out the garbage
To make emotions clean
To make sex a chore

Setting out tasks
Too hard to carry out
Too heavenly to leave
Talking in tongues
About missions
Fulfill or be fulfilled
Pouring wax on water
Into spaced red eyes
Smacking ourselves awake
Instead of dreaming
We must only sleep when knees give way to ground
Charging around
Spreading importance like peanut butter
Hard to get the taste out
Grabbing at providence
With plastic forks
We camped out in the ditch
To listen to your visions
Packing us into cans and boxes
We donated our blood
And didn't notice that it hurt.

I wrote "Leaders & Followers" after I knew that I would leave the cult and the rage that I felt on my behalf, but also on behalf of my family, friends and all those loved ones that I had grown up with.