The Mask--By John Polselli--United States

The Mask

The face beyond the face that time has wrought.

It peers into the garden of her youth;

Recalls, with thoughts contemplative and fraught

With pictures from the faded past, the truth

Which did not contrast with the gilded rays

The sun had cast, and bared in bold relief

The pearls of maidenhood—those buoyant days

Unblemished by the cares of guilt and grief.

Though wistful in the harvest of her years,

Beholden does she look now through the mask,

And sees herself, through eyes obscured by tears,

Within the dayspring of her life, and basked

In misty hues of pink and indigo—

The girl she used to be so very long ago.

John Polselli’s poetry has been published in many literary journals and is the recipient of several Editor’s Choice Awards.  As a poet, John enjoys composing in all traditional forms including free verse as well as inventing his own.