Mask of Thorns

Oasis

Angel

Friend

Nearly a Lover

You appeared to be all of these things

But you were none.

You told me

(As you told many others)

To come to you naked

With my true face revealed

Yet you never removed your own mask

Because you didn't

(still don't, I imagine)

Even realize that you were wearing one.

Have you forgotten your own true face?

Have I ever seen it?

I doubt that I have.

I wonder if you have.

True faces still grow under the masks

Without removing the mask,

Without letting your true face breathe,

You have no idea

No clue

How it has grown

What form it has taken

What form it currently has.

Your mask of choice makes you interesting, it's true.

But it is mass produced

Only as unique as the next identical mask.

Those masks are a dime a dozen

You aren't even in the first dozen I've encountered.

Chained by your own thoughts

Imprisoned by the very mold you created to form yourself

Trapped in your old trauma and refusing to acknowledge it

Controlled only by your past,

But controlled fully by it.

You painted yourself into a corner and are too afraid to get out.

Only the most superficial connections are maintained

Because they feel safe

Secure

Predictable

But pretending these connections are deep

Will not make it so.

All are just customers to you

And you know how to work them for tips.

You are too covered with thorns

To be as vulnerable as you wish.

I leave you behind on my road, fading in the rearview

An object closer than it appears, but further away by the second

Smaller

and

Smaller

and

Smaller

and

gone.

Nothing but the horizon

and the shimmers of heat mirage rising from the asphalt.

Your place in my journey has ended.

Do not try to help me with my demons

When you cannot handle your own.