Masked (video)
No, I won’t take off my mask.
It’s mine, it’s more: it’s me.You ask an impossible task; why should I let you see?
Do you have any idea what’s under here? I bet you think you do.
I let you see what you need to see, or what I what I feel you do.
No, I can’t take off my mask.
I’m telling you, it’s stuck.
Pull as hard as you’d like; trust me: I’ve tried. Good luck.
It’s seeped into my skin, and hardened like cement
Of months and years of pulls and tears, its tight grasp’s left a dent
How does one take off a mask?
Just let the whole world in?
But I don’t want all chapters read; I need my plastic grin.
A hidden chamber’s cheapened without the curtains drawn.
So instead I’ll wear a cheap mask; look at that. Problem gone.
I know I’m more than a mask.
The question is: do you?
I do feel trapped inside facades I wish I could slip through.
It’s not always so pretty, beneath this mask of mine.
My core’s not made of lemongrass; winds storm beneath “I’m fine.”
A complicated universe, an ocean, a pot of stew.
But can you understand that? Is that beneath yours too?
Fine. I’ll take off the mask.
But assure me of one thing.
Don’t touch, don’t prod, don’t judge me; ‘cause G-d knows it’ll sting.
My sharp edges are far from perfect, with nakedness hard to ignore
But if I reapply my mask, it’ll cling tighter than before
Impossible: to take off a mask.
To let go. Just reveal.
Painfully human…pungently human
Vulnerable...and real
Indeed my mask is lovely; thank you, I won’t disagree.
But beneath my mask, I’m telling you, it’s something else: it’s me.
Just let the whole world in?
But I don’t want all chapters read; I need my plastic grin.
A hidden chamber’s cheapened without the curtains drawn.
So instead I’ll wear a cheap mask; look at that. Problem gone.
I know I’m more than a mask.
The question is: do you?
I do feel trapped inside facades I wish I could slip through.
It’s not always so pretty, beneath this mask of mine.
My core’s not made of lemongrass; winds storm beneath “I’m fine.”
A complicated universe, an ocean, a pot of stew.
But can you understand that? Is that beneath yours too?
Fine. I’ll take off the mask.
But assure me of one thing.
Don’t touch, don’t prod, don’t judge me; ‘cause G-d knows it’ll sting.
My sharp edges are far from perfect, with nakedness hard to ignore
But if I reapply my mask, it’ll cling tighter than before
Impossible: to take off a mask.
To let go. Just reveal.
Painfully human…pungently human
Vulnerable...and real
Indeed my mask is lovely; thank you, I won’t disagree.
But beneath my mask, I’m telling you, it’s something else: it’s me.
Wow, this is quite a musical poem. You succeed in staying consistent with your meter, and the rhymes here mostly feel natural. This is hard to pull off. I would like to talk about this one in class, so I will email you about it.
ReplyDeleteI like the playfulness that the rhyming pattern of this poem gives off. It comes of a fable or fairytale being told to a group of listeners. I think that the metaphor here is obvious which is nice. The singsongy quality of this song sounds almost jarring mixed in with the meaning of the poem, wich is falsehood, identity, and finding one's truth. Plastic grin sounds creepy and out of place in a poem like this, but it works. It makes the message sink in deeper.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is so well done and raw. The repetition of phrases (ex: "no, I won't take off my mask") kind of made it more human for me, although you can maybe look into cutting some down. The rhyming is really excellent, which serves to make this poem effortlessly whimsical in an unsettling way, because its message is deep and real.
ReplyDeleteFavorite lines: "plastic grin", and "my core's not made of lemongrass"- plastic makes me think of clowns and fake ness and inflexibility and inauthenticity and artificiality, all the things its supposed to conjure. The lemongrass line, on the other hand, pulls on a classic hipster scent for candles- and most often SOAPS- to imply that you're not 'squeaky clean' inside. I thought that was a beautiful use of 'implied double entendre' (kind of made that term up, but you get me).