A perfectly cut smile from ear to ear,
Laughs echoing down the hall quite clear.
Her eyes are filled with fake sincerity.
All this to hide her deepest insecurities.
She wears a mask to protect herself
Because behind, that perfect smile is gone
And those eyes look completely lost.

There is a beautiful world
Full of life and love and lust
A land in which dreams unfold
I will, I do, I must

Then

There is a world of masks
Full of lies and lows and rant
A land of troubles and tears and tasks
I won’t, I don’t, I can’t

And

These worlds are one and the same
All it takes is a little peek
To see, beneath the veil, the shame
There is nothing like what we seek

I am tired...
of this mask that I painted on my face.
I designed my mask to smile.
With this came many friends, some good, some bad.
Some I would die for others will be the reason for my death.
You see, with this mask, I never spoke about my problems.
I kept it hidden like it was gold.
I was always helping people out, but no one was helping me.
I was slowly dying, but my mask was smiling.
No one would know anything, just the way my mask likes it.
I want to take this mask out, but it is stuck.
It became me now
My eyes are closing my face is still smiling.
My eyes are tired of acting, but my body is at the next scene.
The next time you look at my face, maybe you would see the pain in my eye, not the smile on my face.

Let your face shine with a smile behind your COVID 19 mask.
Swathe your lips with kind words.
Focus on others with the eye of your heart.
Dress yourself with a garment of contentment.
Infuse your community with the fragrance of compassion.
Saturate your heart with tenderness.
Ignite  your soul with love.
Wear a crown of humanity.
Stand tall, as a role model for rendering services to others.

Hussein Dekmak

1.Wake up and drag yourself out of your comfort.
2. Put on your persona of the day, channel what you lack until it feels real.
3. Force yourself to speak, you wouldn't want to be left alone.
4. Crawl back into your comfort and waste away in your room.
5. Try to sleep, block out the thoughts, plead with the voices for a moment of silence.
6. Repeat.

Matters of the heart are not easily dismissed or disguised
Thus the elaborate masks we wear.

An illusion, so others can't see
Truth is not easily cast aside or veiled

Though a mask can conceal these for a short while
Truth, like air, will in time find its way to the surface

For the heart holds truth and truth is easily sought
It is a brilliant light that can not be buried

Its intensity reaches the greatest depths of our souls
And reveals itself through the windows

An older lady…No mask… arsenic and old lace
scuttling along…so I think to cross.
Just to give her more space.
“I haven’t got it…” she shouts, full bore, almost in my face
“No… but I might have - you just don’t know.
There’s no point in you having a go!”

“I’m wearing a mask to protect both of us
so I don’t know why you’re making a fuss.”
“I told you I haven’t got it… so you can just get stuffed”
Whoa… a minute!… Who’s rattled your bars?
Would you like a mask. I always carry a spare?
“You can just *******”, she said “ ‘cos I really don’t care!”

She’s the one who waves her stick at cars
and picks imaginary fluff off her coat…
So she needs to be looked out for… looked after.
Next time I’ll be on the look out. I’ll take special note
maybe go round the block the other way.
That way I won’t upset her; she’ll have a better day.

I know this situation is affecting everyone
in every country all around the world.  People get tetchy.
But that’s no good reason to abandon reason.
It’s rough, it’s tough - and even good manners are
sometimes not enough… So make time
for others who can’t make the best of things.

Best accept we’re in this for the long haul
because that’s what it’s going to be…
For a generation at least this will be
the way we have to live… balancing
breathing freely against economics,
against promises of socialising in the sun…

Then - No Fun!...No Frolics

Against drip-stands, ventilators and fears that run
deep into our county, our country… our world.
Here she comes again… “I ain’t got it, I ain’t got it!”
Good for you girl!