Special Feature Collaborative Poem--By Rob Harle--Australia and Sunil Sharma--India

Masks

By Rob Harle and Sunil Sharma

This mask you wear today

cultivated

finely honed in light,

hours spent preening the reflection

mirror's lights

and mirror's gaze

to impress,

to bolster sagging confidence

dragged downwards slowly.

Like a Noh mask

Conveying various meanings

Depending on the actor’s angles

The corporate honcho, bit aged

Hides beneath the subtle make-up

Conforming to their image

And confirming the effect

Before a well-lit mirror!

And yesterday's mask,

washed away

perhaps thrown in a corner

to decay like memories,

like childhood fantasies,

the puppets and the plays

have long since gathered dust.

What of tomorrow's mask?

In the junk yard

Teaming with the odd masks

And with the lilacs growing on

The pile of assorted memories

They search for the right one

Out of that debris of puppets

Bits and odds

For an enduring one, the middle-class mask.