Beware the masks 4-15-2021 |
Ugliness Hides Ugliness hides behind a mask, not the one everyone thinks of in today's pandemic world, but the invisible one right there in plain sight. It hides behind the artfully decorated: the one of painted-on beauty the one that is scum deep. Not on the face of the exhausted mother with the tired child, who comforts, quietly cajoles the tears away, replaced with a giggle and they both halfway smile. But on the woman-child with lashes an inch long, skinny jeans and three-inch heels, long blond hair which she artfully flips as she pockets earrings at the jewelry counter. Not on the face of the policeman who sits on the curb, grey with pain, and bleeding. Nonetheless, comforts a screaming little boy while they pry his dad out of the rolled car: the gun, still hanging from bent fingers. The jaws of life came up empty. But on the man in the parking lot, with his cute dog on a leash, knocking on car windows who says he needs help and then tries to steal the car when someone attempts to be nice. Not on the face of the lady who'd been on her feet for twelve hours directing people where we went to get vaccinated. When she smiles, you could see it through her mask because that smile went clear to her eyes. Ugliness hides behind masks that don't hang from ears or have cartoon characters with toothy smiles. Ugliness hides behind masks never designed to save lives, but to harm them. Even the executioner's mask of days gone by wasn't as ugly. |