Mirroring Happy Eyes

When you hear this, I ask you to
disregard the face
that is telling it to you
for that face is one
that could never be taken seriously


A mask covers our world
reaching from the shore
and covering every one of our faces with a
painted perfection
that we try so hard to be

Leaving in the shadows
the indolent and surreptitious
the lowly and the damaged
I however
balance on the periphery

Watching as those around me succumb to the idea of what is perfect
I lose myself in the idea of what is normal

With the world flowing past me
leaving me in the dust
I hide under a blanket of broad inscrutability

My own shadow reaches from my head to my feet

This shadow is my salvation
for within its boundaries I can distort the image seen to the eyes of onlookers
The broken
painful eyes of a thousand nightmares
The limp
defeated body of one who is powerless and broken
Are swallowed by the blackness

Reality is twisted by my shadow
until here before you
stands my own painted picture

With eyes that seamlessly mirror the happiness of others
and a face
that could never be taken seriously