Poetry Friday: A poem titled "Mask"
- NYS Writers Institute
- Aug 28, 2020
- 2 min read
Mask
By Cheryl A. Rice
Cowboy, Ninja, Terrorist - you can play any role you like in your fashion mask of choice. The interwebs are flooded with ads, your favorite band, TV show, cartoon persona quickly printed on a nylon sling contoured to enclose your jaw, your mouth, the all-important nose, source of all knowledge of this vine-ripened disease. I hesitate to commemorate the trend, don’t think of it as fashion, but a horror show with no finale, necessary evil, like soap or daylight. The calendar and my inked-in plans mocks me from above a desk I may never see again. I hover over a laptop, perform a mockery of my former tasks, wear a mask myself of despair, confusion, pause.
By Cheryl A. Rice © 2020 All rights reserved. Previously published in the New York State Writers Institute's Trolley journal.
Cheryl A. Rice’s work has appeared in Baltimore Review, Chronogram, Florida Review, Home Planet News, Mangrove, Metroland, Poughkeepsie Journal, The Temple, Woodstock Times, and in the anthologies Wildflowers, Vol. II (2002: Shivastan Publishing), Riverine (2007: Codhill Press) and For Enid, With Love (2010: NYQuarterly).
She is the author of A Thousand Candy Vaginas: Poems 1989-1995 (1997, Palaver Press), Aleums (1999, Flying Monkey Press), Egypt (2001, Flying Monkey Press), Nobody Slept Last Night (2003, Another Poor Bastard Productions, CD), Auction (2004, Flying Monkey Press; 2nd edition 2010), Girl Poet (2007, Flying Monkey Productions, CD), Roses: three poems (2011, Flying Monkey Press), and Outside (2011, Flying Monkey Press).
Founder and host of the Sylvia Plath Bake-Off, Cheryl has held her "Random Writing" workshops throughout the Hudson Valley, where she has lived for more than 30 years, after growing up on Long Island. You can read more of her words at albanypoets.com/poets/cheryl-a-rice/#1 and on her blog at flyingmonkeyprods.blogspot.com.
Fashion, style, and the opinions of others can all be interesting, but true freedom is about choosing what is right for you. We decide who we are, what we wear, and how we behave, because this is our uniqueness. In ballet, where every movement is an expression of personality, clothes become an extension of your self. It should not only be beautiful but also comfortable to help you move freely and confidently. https://artdeballet.com/ understands this philosophy, offering ballet uniforms that emphasize your individuality and give you a feeling of lightness. Because the most important thing is to be yourself, and the rest is just a beautiful addition to your path!
I’ve been diving deeper into self-expression lately, and the poem really hit home. It speaks to how we often hide behind masks, and I couldn't help but think about how my style, like the twiggy dress, can be a way to project a version of myself that feels safer. The poem makes me realize how much power we give to appearances, yet sometimes we forget the essence beneath it all. That’s where embracing both the mask and the true self becomes so important.