Behind the Mask
Location
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
For he is not his usual driven, loved, bright eyed and bushy-tailed self.
He lays there having suffered a great lost, a part of himself, and at all cost...
Fortnight and a day ago he came to prattle.
He spoke of a mask of many sorts, clouded mirrors, and a very deep conflicting haggle.
I fell into a dreary spell of disbelief as he willingly began to loosely preach.
Lonely, lost, scared, disparity fell from his pale thin lips with shaken ease.
So long after I begged him to stop for this wasn’t the man I knew and thought.
His incessant rambling continued on up until his frustrated teary eyed gaze was withdrawn.
A brief moment of silence met the room…
“This is who I am!” he profoundly exclaimed as our eyes met again.
Bewildered by his sudden sense of self-proclaimed realization, I couldn’t speak but listened on.
“This is who I am and I’ve been quite the impractical fool having not accepted it before…
I was so caught up in the safety of a mask that it began to bore heavy burdens unlike ever before.”
He let out a painstakingly cry prior to spilling more.
“I’ve… I… I’ve come to realize that what’s within is all that matters…
My internal feelings are what define how I take and interpret the world outside.
I no longer need a mask to make me feel safe in the skin where I reside.”
Later thinking over his troubled thoughts,
I realized as I gazed in the mirror that I too have sought a mask in times of emotional wrought.