As a child Andrew McCants Thomas knew something set him apart from others. He didn’t know what it was. He was cautious; always on the alert. As an adult, he remembers how his childhood feelings first surfaced, as written in his poem “Just Like That”:
I could feel, what happened to me
Revealing, what I couldn’t see
Then the feeling, unveiled a view
Of a childhood, I couldn’t undo
The path set up, for me to heal
Showed up, when I began to feel
Eventually, his feelings became flashbacks of childhood sexual abuse. The Twist (published by CrossBooks), an autobiographical, biographical, and fictional narrative, is the story of his recovery. In this all-consuming disclosure, Thomas wages war against the Twist, the spirit of child sexual abuse, by following God’s path to healing; he tells the truth.
“My intention is to present the issue of childhood sexual abuse so that victims and survivors are empowered to report the abuse as a means to recover,” Thomas explains.
“Tell a Friend”
If you intend, for this to end
Hiding out, is no way to mend
Truth as always, will overcome
A twisted lie, and where it’s from
No kidding, you want to be free
Tell a friend, ‘it happened to me’
And as you tell, forget the lies
It won’t be you, but fear that dies!