Inside Mask

 

That mask

you wear inside

to cover up

your fear

of being who you really are.

 

The consequence defaced.

Swimming around the brim

of your inner monologue.

About to overflow,

and spill out monsters.

 

It seems that way,

for your are disconnected.

Unplugged from who you are

for so long.

 

Nursing at the breast

of a surrogate mother,

who is

as real a lie as we can make.

 

Part of you

still remembers,

the mountains,

and the prairie,

and the sea.

 

That which moves in you

is alien,

because it never sees

the light of day.

 

Cover it up.

Cover it and bury it deep,

until it becomes a monster

swimming around in the weeds.

 

You don’t know who you are.

It’s obvious to anyone who can see.

You’ve been separated

from yourself

for so long,

that you think

you’re something weak.

 

Concealing you from you

is just anathema

to growth,

and in your nature

lies your way.

 

Reveal yourself

to yourself.

Look you in the eye

and go from there.

 

So well trained

at masquerading.

So conditioned

to obey.

 

There was nothing wrong

with who you were

in the first place.

Not a monster

behind that face.

 

 

HG – 2020

2 thoughts on “Inside Mask

  1. this is so beautiful.

    it actually connects to something I read earlier today in the novel, “ On earth we’re briefly gorgeous“ by Ocean Vuong.

    it read as the following;

    ““You’re not a monster,” I said.
    But I lied.
    What I really wanted to say was that a monster is not such a terrible thing to be. From the Latin root monstrum, a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by the Old French to mean an animal of myriad origins: centaur, griffin, satyr. To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.””

    so even if we were a monster, it wouldn’t be a good enough reason to put on a mask. “

    anyways I just wanted to share that with you. I really enjoyed what you wrote.

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