A Prophecy Miles Patterson I am alone. All my friends have deserted me to the world of ropes hanging from trees; then a Prophet opens my eyes revealing armies of friends encompassing me in the night-valley I call life. I refuse to believe what the Prophet shows me; they are nothing merely hallucinations. “Believe me, believe me when I tell you: your friends have not abandoned you. Release the doubt you have held hands with since the days you decreed your self-taught loneliness was seen by humanity. Let go and you will see your doubt thrives on the secret that love is locked in a safe somewhere safe inside of you. Love is not meant to be withheld. Love is meant for all even the world you believe despises you with its trees. 56 “Believe me when I tell you: if you refuse to let go that love will crawl through your chest holding your heart in its hands. “Believe me when I tell you: you are made of more than dirt. There are reasons why your feet remain intimate with the earth. Unless you can love your self the way you love your neighbour you will never know why breath still bathes in your lungs when you wake up in the morning. “Believe me when I tell you: you possess the strength of Samson to destroy the emotional armies depriving you of life. Your armies are there –open your eyes, see your friends– stick with them and see life cannot carry you into an underworld of emotional torment. 57 “Do not give up. Do not listen when you tell your self the world is at war with you. “Do not give up. Do not listen when the world tells you love and peace are dead. “Do not give up. Do not pick up a noose hanging from a tree. “Keep writing your poems of pain so the world may see: there is hope in writing words in the hope of relieving pain.” 58