ALREADY MASKED UP

How many masks will we wear
Before we realize
We were already wearing masks
Because shame is at the root
Of unconsciousness
And we live in a world
Where people hide their vulnerability
And hide their grief
Afraid of revealing themselves

This new mask syndrome is convenient
But, on the existential level,
Doomed to failure

We are born for contact, for connection
We are trained to watch each other's every detail
We stare into the eyes and face of our mother
Reading with wonder every twitch, smile and frown
And now all we see are the eyes of strangers
Some hostile, some benevolent, many scared
Reaching out across space and time
Like stars blinking in a dark universe

We were already masked up
Hiding how we feel
This current masking brings us to our grief
The height of our apparent separation from each other
Secretly, on the shadow side,
I think many actually want to wear masks

We are at our grief point my friend
Breakdown or breakthrough, who knows which.

I am sorry, please forgive me, I love you.

- Kaviji

- Image by Poli from Pixabay

‘I wrote this yesterday and put it out on Facebook, thinking it was a throwaway poem, but it got more attention and shares and actually provoked quite a lot of feeling. It seemed to resonate at some level. I am only interested in the deepest, thats where everything grows from, so it speaks to that. I decided I needed to share it here.’ - Kavi