Mask Shop in Venice
We are all mask-makers.
Fear teaches us the art,
And time holds them up for us to dance among,
Changing our faces
To face other gazes.
In saints and bodhisattvas
They disappear.
Some masks are
Gauzy,
Thin.
But more are darkling thick, encrusted with past pain,
Obscuring us from others
And others from us.
For the backs of such masks are mirrors.
Photo credit: NateBW, Flickr, Creative Commons
We are of the same generation, so you surely know the Billy Joel song:
Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and show ourselves
With no one else around.
Some are satin, some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They’re the faces of the stranger
And we love to try them on.