Faith

I am the one that no one sees… Sitting at the corner table of the café. I find safety in shadows, in hiding from the world. Here… In the dark… No one can hurt me. Sometimes they notice me… A passing glance… A wan smile… But such pleasantries are mere customary acknowledgments imparted to the faceless masses. They don’t see me… They don’t want to… Ignore it and perhaps it will go away. But it doesn’t. I am it. I am alive, though barely, but somewhere deep behind these vague eyes there is a soul that is screaming and the fires of a thousand ages burn within my heart. I am alive! Release me! But no. I am still. I am purposeless. I am alone. I am a prisoner confined to my own skin, an eternity worse than purgatory! Worse than any fate imaginable! A blind mute with a painting and a song. A caged bird with severed wings and an empty food tray. I am dying outside and screaming within. Within, there is still life! There is still the will and the want to live! To thrive! To FEEL! But without, only a solemn mask of stone. A face marked with a thousand invisible scars. You don’t see them, but they are there. Just like you don’t see me, hiding in the shadows of my corner table, but I am here… I am here.