When the masks fall

The theater was silent
The stage was set
A thousand eyes examining its slightest tremble
Made it seem like glowing with anticipation

In a circle all around the stage they sit
Under the starlit sky
A beautiful summer night carries them to a land of dreams
As the actors appear and the play begins

They are moving forward, coming from the south and facing towards the north
In slow motion they crawl
On their hands and their feet and the movement of them all
Seems like the wind trying to move a stone

This goes on for an eternity
Until the audience begins to understand
Nodding in appreciation
Of the metaphor constructed right before their eyes

This is when the actors rise to walk upright

Moving faster, spreading out in all directions
Ever faster, to the point where they are just a blur
And in this storm of understanding and development
All of a sudden many drop like flies
And it seems like others take their energy
To move on even faster

Closer to the audience

At first this is pure fascination
Seeing all those golden masks upon their faces rushing by so closely

But then it happens

In one motion
The actors who are on their feet
Stop, a heartbeat away from the astonished faces watching them –
They look around and see their fallen comrades watch with pleading eyes
Slowly crawling towards them

Watching them fight their way towards the motionless
All of a sudden you can see the difference
As if the masks of those who stand are subtly changing
Some into shining gold
And some into the haunting dark of hell

What followed was a silence forged by terror…

The faces still were not revealed
But those who killed and those who healed
Have turned their masks to shining gold
Or to the end that is foretold

A paradise and tragic land
The theater was split in two
Forming a hive of tear-stained sand
and angels that have seen all truth

The grounds on which the angels tread
Is formed by hands that healed the wounds
The grounds on which the murder feasted
Is held by those who demons led

And outside stands the audience
They’re horrified and filled with joy
They lift their heads up to the stars
And see the two masks smiling back

Cause all the stars that shine up there
Are also cells within this hive
The cell called earth is ours to form
But there are others filled with life

And if we find them will we see
The mask that stares us in the face?
To run away or to embrace
Treading on ground with angels found
Or hoping for a demon’s grace?

The actors rise, all are alive!
A play intense and beautiful
And the applause! A raging storm
A sign of the storms we will form…

The time of the apocalypse?
Or paradise, forever ours?

If it is god or chance or fate
that made the stage on which we play
Who is to know, who is to tell?

Which face we forge with what we do and say…

Decided in a play that’s real
Upon a cosmic summer night
Whatever force creates the cells
Will watch with pity and delight

When the masks fall