Other Pages

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Once Magnificent



Poetry is a mask
made of the papier-mâché
of your emotions
A small piece,
a small flavor,
genuinely you,
but oddly only one,
or a few,
sides of you,
or maybe a hundred

People try to glance into
the author’s mind
but get more than they bargained for:
they get a piece
of the heart

But only the most dedicated
and avid readers
will even come close to that:
the gem,
the true meaning,
which perhaps not even the author knows

For the emotions are written in
between the lines,
under the lines,
piled ten layers thick,
this mask describing the substance

And as the reader reaches through each shell,
he will ultimately end up
with nothing,
the mask was not concealing
anything at all!

In confusion
the reader searches for this face
that should,
must,
be in the mask
The face of the author,
the mind,
the heart,
the gem,
the meaning,
the purpose
of the entire work.

The reader gives up angrily,
begrudging his lost time,
as he kicks the pile
of peeled-away
garbage
across the room

How long
will it take him
to realize
the true treasure
was in the layers
so meticulously torn away
and now lying in ruin
of a work
once magnificent?