Mask Poem by olawale famodun

I've always wondered why I
Have something about myself that
Often I want to hide. I grappled
So long with this, why I ever wanted
To conceal many things about myself.

So this curiosity had led me far
To find that there is something about me
Which is the dark and unknown aspect, that I fear to know,
Just as on a clear night watch the full moon
Shine whilst it keeps its other side from our view.

And this dark side of me, is fused with
Impulses, drives and complexes of
Emotional overtones, which almost
I must make recondite in other that
I may succeed as to behave myself.

But when the pastor struck as a rapist, or the burglar
Attained ecstasy breaking through a fort,
Or even as the public officer was said
To do that unbecoming embezzling money, they had only
Not hidden that very dark part of themselves.

So is the man who by some fate,
Is sickened in the head.
All that he's done or that he'll do,
The children of man has termed irrational,
Because they wouldn't display it,
Not to be considered themselves insane.

It's the same with all of us, to
Spend our lifetime struggling to disguise who we truly are
And feign never to have it deny ourselves.
To keep many things about myself clouded up
Hence, like others, I am regarded to be sane.