Mask

This mask I wear

Holds me into life

Filtering my moments against nanoparticles

That rush like meteorites to crush my face

And ebb my marching blood from life's race

It masks my all smile-

Some vague and some puerile

That lurk like stars in the sky of life

With their growing glowing every day

Or gloaming slowly into a hellish bay

Though life dangles like bubbles and froth

But it does precariously thrive behind a piece of cloth

Can it hide that mask

That I put on eons back

Soon after I lost my innocence?

This creamy melanin on my face

Had masked my every pleasure and pain-

When I played truant with my teacher

Like that of the monsoon with the farmer

Or slipped into Aman Nahak's orchard in the hot afternoon sun

After frisking my mother as a docile son

Or, as pretending as an owl

When, as a lover, I stood utterly truthful

For many an attempt made my attempts fruitful

Or, when I knew

My glib tongue can earn profit

So, slowly I puffed up my leech-alike motif?

Or, shut and cried behind doors

And like gnats, I chirped for nights

And lost among countless pegs of drinks

Only to rise in the day

To listen the world say-

'A beautiful face

Has brilliantly played his part on the stage'

In between myriad lights

That crisscrossed from all sides

Not afraid of that cosmic light

To alight from far off-site

To unmask my mask

With a heavenly verdict.