MASK

MASK

We live in an era where the word mask has become ubiquitous.  However this poem was written in another time, not very long ago. It was written in December of twenty fourteen, just about six years back.  Then it got lost among lots of others amidst many that I wrote and did not complete or was discarded.  Few days back as I was rummaging through some of my old folders, I found this and found it to be surprisingly complete.  I think this still have relevance today, albeit not in a sense that we associate masks with now a days.

The moment we entered the world

We are marked.

Labels defined us at every step.

We are sons, daughters, brothers, sisters.

 

Every step we made, every progression,

Got labeled and defined for us.

We are smart, fool, lazy, successful.

Labeled nicely in boxes as per societies’ norms.

World as we know,

Won’t let us live as ourselves

Break those norms,

We are labeled as rebels, misfits,

To be put down with all their might.

 

Conform or perish,

Lead or follow,

Succeed or fail,

Be religious (whatever it means),

Or rot in hell (as if enough hell is not created in this world).

 

Every step we take,

Yardsticks are out to measure

Our fit to a new label.

We are not allowed to be ourselves.

Deified or demonized or in between.

 

We are all wearing a mask,

Masking us from ourselves

In this journey through life.

Blissfully unaware that

Anonymous we came and

and will leave to anonymity.

 

At journey’s end,

These masks of label,

Won’t be of any use to us.