Masquerade

Poem about the masks we wear

Masquerade
Paper faces on parade
Hide your face so the world will never find you

We all wear masks, what’s yours look like today?
Our masks are addictions
Coping mechanisms we use to deal with the world around us
Sometimes it's scarier to be seen than to remain hidden
Our masks hide our insecurities like makeup covering up imagined blemishes
Transforming us into whoever we wish to be


Masquerade
Paper faces on parade,
Hide your face so the world will never find you.


So what mask do you have on today brother?
It is your fake machismo, your blind masculinity
That teaches you not to cry, not to show emotion?
Is it your jokes and frivolity that you use to hide the pain?
Maybe its the music on the radio you use to drown out your thoughts
Those thoughts in your mind that haunt you day and night
In daydreams and nightmares
Like failure and rejection
hopelessness and despair
But even the guilt of those feelings consume us
So put the mask back on, never take it off
Never let them see
who u really are
underneath


Masquerade
Many faces, different shades
Turn and see all the other masks behind you

What is the mask today sister?
Is it the mask of assimilation that we all wear?
The forced assimilation that makes you hate the texture of your hair?
The hidden perception of inferiority that invades your thoughts like a raging army
conquering your sense of self-worth?
We all wear masks
we just have to be honest
Maybe it's me hiding behind this desolate sonnet
Metaphors and similes
haikus and soliloquies
All just a blank verse, empty and void
I write about it so I don’t have to talk about it
You can just read about it
don’t have to talk to me about it
Poetry is my air
I don't think that I can breathe without it
I don’t know what I would do
I don’t know what I would be without it
But is it a mask that I use to hide who I really am inside?
Or is it a glimpse into my heart, and into my soul, and into my mind...
But is anybody listening?

Masquerade
Paper faces on parade
Hide your face so the world will never find you

What is your mask today preacher?
Is it your fake smile and firm handshake?
Is it that imperial processional at the beginning of the service that makes you feel important because you got no love as a child
Or u get no love at home
Everyone's always throwing stones
Why won’t they leave you alone!?
What is it preacher? What is it?!
Is it that voice that you put on when u preach?
You growl and you moan, and you hiss and you screech
To hide that empty mind inside that shrieks
During the day and during the night when you sleep
It won’t leave you alone so you drown it out when you preach!
But yet and still, I see it.
I see it in those moments when u were caught off guard
And slipped into a silence that reeked of melancholy, of sadness, and of pain
Does it bother you preacher that you sold your soul for fame?
Or to be recognized so they will know your name?
What is the mask preacher? What is it sister?
What is it brother? What is it man? What is it woman?
What is it father? What is it mother? What is it Meade?
What is it?!

Masquerade
Many faces different shades, masquerade Hide ur face so the world will never find you

We all wear masks
What's yours today?

Author's Note

This is a spoken word piece I'm trying to translate to the page. Does it work? Does it fall flat?