NaPoWriMo Day 26: The Invisible Mask

NaPoWriMo Day 26:

I followed the ArtoonsInn Prompt today to write  a poem on the below picture:

Poem Title: The invisible mask

Hush! Don’t speak up, don’t talk like that!

We are advised from birth till we breathe our last

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Veil your emotions, don’t act or react,

Just follow the course, why look beyond the track

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Your tears or fears, they say, must stay repressed,

Why can’t you adorn a smile than retort?

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Oh! You must have been the victim of their conduct,

But why not just accept and leave things to chance

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Suppress, inhibit and slay your emotions

Aren’t we all expected to heed to this diktat?

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Acrimony, rage, abuse, we agree it’s detrimental

But give us a chance to voice our opinions, to state some facts

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Smothering true emotions, we all don a mask

For every occasion, person or task

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The mask that has seized our true identity

The mask that silently curbs our liberty

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The mask that our race inherited as its legacy,

The mask that weighs us down and questions our verity

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Can we take off that mask for once, dear society?

Can we see our true faces; can we wake up from insobriety?

–

©Vandana Bhasin

26.04.2021