Poem - Behind the Mask

Chuck Palahniuk is credited with the quote, "I want out of the labels. I don't want my whole life crammed into a single word. A story. I want to find something else, unknowable, some place to be that's not on the map. A real adventure. A spinx. A mystery. A blank. Unknown. Undefined." These thoughtful words inspired me to write “Behind the Mask”.


Behind the Mask

If I removed your mask
would you do the same for me
to discover what lays below
the symphony beyond a single note?

I ask because there is more
beyond the tones and the words
utilized by the practical
shackles I’d like to drop

labels seek to assign my soul
to boxes set by just one word
when the breadth is something else
the unknown beyond the undefined

there we'll find what lays beyond
map's borders that man declare
in their quest for dogma's place
constricting breadth of what could be

monsters be in that place
as are angels with singed wings
one or the other sings the true heart
with the rapture or the wail

still the truth is a blank
discovered by doing and not by sight
firmly grasped to move beyond
hearing the mysteries behind the mask.

© 2017. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved. 20171116.