The Mask

So often the people who try to give advice
are standing on the outside looking in
with their fairytale solutions that are obviously pretend.

Why do we listen to these scoffers and hecklers
when they decide to assume the character
of the wise advised oracle, dying to be the narrator?
See it’s an eye for an eye or so people say,
but the citizens of this time want a voice
yet they are too afraid to stand up next their choices.
You can’t steal a voice, and you can’t trade it either.
So many of us have tried but it’s never been done
because the search for an alternate you isn’t fun.
Well it can be for a spell, but we all know that’s magic.
When you stand at the edge of the cliff looking down,
there’s no tricks or allusions when its swim or be drown.
It’s a fight for the very essence of life.
We are so willing to hide behind a mask of a lie,
even though we can’t see we would rather be blind.
I can’t boast and say that I’m better than ‘us,’
on my wall there is mask after mask,
and I’ve stood at the edge of the cliff in the past.
I know what it’s like to believe in that flight;
to trod with my feet bound in chains up that mountain,
so desperate for the world to call me a ‘count in.’

Nobody likes to be counted out or cast away,
it’s a comedy how our differences make us unique,
but the joke’s on the audience as they laugh at the ‘geeks.’
A simple stutter can make you relish your speech,
as a gait in your trot makes every step an adventure,
this is just my thesis now I’ll get to the clincher.
So listen up while you can and look across the water,
there’s other mountains, with people atop seemingly just like you,
and they never even realize they’re within a telescopic view.
So take your mask and ablaze it like a beacon of hope,
even in the dark of the life we call ours,
a strand of light can ignite the remainder of stars.
It’s time we stood up and claimed our own shadow.
When we remove our masks and finally glance around,
we see we’re not the only ones throwing our blindness to the ground.
There’s now a turn in the tide, known as a driving aspiration.
No longer does the whisper of society take hold,
we’ve addressed our inner mess, and we’ve broke the potter’s mold.
Our conversations are now not dominated by a fake smile,
and authenticity exudes from every once muffled word
without the mask to block the passage we can finally be heard.
So let us loose a roar that will break through the sky.
Yet so often we allow our dreams to fade away too soon;
let’s ride this rocket of redemption all the way to the moon.
In a society that idolizes the concept of perfection,
we’re armed with our differences to fight against the scrutiny;
we’ve come together in our oddities to raise a misfit mutiny.
To dispel a misconception: freedom isn’t free,
if we pursue a mask-less life, then we better be prepared,
for harshness of their judgments is best exampled in their stares.
The world wields the weapons of temptation and a shield of gossip
and you best be on you guard at every passing hour,
your heartbeat drums to the chimes of the unwinding clock tower.
When the night is darkest, and you seem to be surrounded,
take up the flag of individuality and plant it in the soil,
you are a beautiful creation, to yourself be ever loyal.
We are hand drawn by The Architect who sketched the galaxies,
yet we believe our imperfections are His erasure shavings;
but the truth is, He drew in pen; our ink is never-fading.
See we are designed in the only image worthy of perfection,
so as we shuffle through our masks, wishing to better our physique
do we realize that we’re concealing the very thing that we seek.
It’s safe to say that sincerity has become a lost art these days.
Can we transform our outward expression to reflect what’s deep within?
We’re so ready to make a change, yet so hesitant to begin.
The road up the mountain is deceivingly wide,
but as we perch at the top looking over the way we came,
a return trip’s too dangerous through the rugged terrain.
And the worst thing about our masks is we pretend we don’t care
because if we cared we would have to acknowledge our need
for a radical change in the cores of our beliefs.
In most of our realities, our cares are dominated by other’s thoughts.
We care so much about what others say and think
that we allow the world to puppeteer us right up to the brink.
As we dance to our desires we realize happiness is fleeting.
Who we are now doesn’t match who we thought we’d be.
It’s a scary thought, but in a mask, you’re no longer me.
and you’re no longer you; instead you’re just a painted face.
What’s even scarier is we think every change was sacrifice,
like we were laying ourselves down to absorb some better life.
We error in our constant self-centered approach.
But don’t we get it: we don’t have to lay ourselves down
to the world, because there was a man who laid down His crown.
He laid down more that we can ever imagine,
including death in it’s grave; He took on all our worry
so that one day we could stand before the Father in His glory.
It’s not the mask who will be judged, but the person underneath;
in that moment every mask we had will not be able to hide
the thoughts conceived and the actions we’ve exemplified.
So let us rid ourselves of our masks and re-adjust our eyes;
for that one-day when the skies erupt in a flood of golden light,
we want to bend our knees, confess, and SEE that we’re riding home with Christ.

Signing Off,

JD