MASK

Dark Piano

Mask

I wear a mask these days
These long, long days of apple green
And cherry red hues of violent fire
Flowing ever constant through my veins.

No one should see this
This me that lives inside my head
This soulstruck, angry being
Shoveling coal in an imaginary hell.

What is it about me
That terrifies myself as nothing else can
That wakes me in the deepest night
To lie awake working out unsolvable puzzles?

I love..I can love…I do love
I love with a persistence that denies dream
Denies fault, denies substance and begging
And clings to invisible strings dangling in the darkness.

Yet in the morning
I wear a mask and a cloak of hiding
Covering breaks in the mind
And tears in the seams of a ragged heart.

I do this for protection
Not for myself but for the world
That must not be exposed to the hurt
Hanging from my eyes and shadowing my footsteps.

I am a phantom
A ghost living among the living
Not participating in the life
But still remembering it’s taste.

Here and there, now and again
I meet another, like myself
Shrouded in mist and howling in silent pain
And we stand and stare as if in a mirror.

And oft as not, we do not speak
But nod in recognition and bow
To a fellow sufferer of these dark days
And endless, everlasting aching.

Once, I was young and beautiful
Vibrant with life and running over with love
Joyful as dawn and undaunted by the setting of the sun
And the world was my happy playground.

But now the midnight
Wraps me in it’s icy arms
Caresses my face with cold sleepless fingers
And kisses I do not want.

It tells me that here I belong
Here, abandoned by love and deserted by hope
I must dwell now always, hiding my ugliness
Behind this mask of the forsaken.

What a hellish, lonely thing life is!
Outwardly, I have not changed
I am still beautiful there, still young, still very much alive
It’s only on the inside that I am terrifying

It’s only on the inside, that it’s dark

All the time.

by Voo

Sept 22, 07

copyrighted

Haunted House

 

Try Jah Love

 

Shapeshifter

Shape Shifter

I am a gentle man, you said

and kissed my hand, raising your eyes

in the process to meet mine

in the candlelight

Promise? I queried and withdrew 

My hand from your tightening grasp

I wouldn't hurt a fly, you answered

And certainly not the heart

Of a fair lady

And I believed you and went tumbling

Down into the spell you cast

The web you wove

The love I needed so badly

For days on end and nights

Forever

Falling for you and your lies

And then the spell was broken

And the web began to strangle

True colors came to light

And cruelty took the place 

Of tenderness

I saw the true you in full sunlight

One day as you shape shifted

From knight to ogre and reached

Out to crush my soul in your hand

You sneered at my fear and laughed

At my pain

You sir, are no gentleman.

You sir, are no gentle man.

You sir, are no man.

©by Voo

Jan 10, 2005

 8 p.m.

Whisper Of The Ice That Burned

Whisper of the Ice That Burned

The oceans were on fire

And the sky was dry as dust

Blood red tears ran down my face

The color of old rust.

Outside looking in

Upside down and up

Rain was pouring from the hole

In my battered silver cup.

The horses flew in wingless flight

On alabaster roads

With armored shoes upon their hooves

Tapping out the codes.

And angels, ah, the angels

Watching from below

Heaving sighs from their pursed lips

At what I did not know.

The stars on furrowed, fertile fields

Lit the clouds above

Wondering how they came to fall

From dark skies that they loved.

And I, in constant deep dismay

Walked the desert sand

Holding woe clutched to my heart

And dread within my hand.

Here and there, a nightingale

Cursed the burning night

Singing in an unknown tongue

With eyes devoid of sight.

Thorns and thistles vining high

Above the heads of trees

Encroaching and enclosing me

Empowered by my pleas.

Skeletons that wore no flesh

Dancing by my side

Mocking, ever mocking me

And my flesh arrayed in pride.

'Twas then I knelt on blackened ground

Begging for the bliss

Hungry for a human heart

Starving for a kiss.

But in the twilight of that hour

There was no human near

My voice in echoes answered back

And magnified the fear.

I saw great blocks of ice on fire

Saw mountains humbled low

Valleys full of hurricanes

And it was forty-nine below.

But then from somewhere far away

There came a gentle word

I raised my head to look around

Wondering what I'd heard.

"Don't go to sleep." the whisper said

"To sleep will make this seem

That all is well down here in Hell

For this is not a dream."

©by Voo

Sept 30, 2010

11:01 p.m.