I’m coming to you from behind a veil. You can’t see it. But it’s there, in front of me. To you, I’m just standing here, unencumbered. Awake. Alive and present in our shared space. But really, I’m miles away. Stuck. Struggling. Screaming. You can’t see or hear it. You just have to trust me. Suspend your disbelief for a moment, and just imagine it for me. A thin veil like clouded-over cellophane pulled taut between us. Separating you from me. And the real me from the me that you see. I see that me too. I see how I look to you. I’m all right. I’m cool. I’m funny. I’ve got my shit together. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid of being afraid. Since you can’t see the veil, I can’t ask you to move it for me. I can’t expect you to understand the way it works or why it chose me of all people to cling to. I don't know how it works. I don't know why it chose me. I just know it’s big. I can’t see over the top and I can’t get around the sides or slip under the bottom. You want to tell me the only way around is through. But you don’t understand what I’m dealing with here. This veil is a monster. A level ten boss bastard and it’s not budging. Not for me. Not for you. But it must have a weakness. A fatal flaw. A breaking point. Everything has a breaking point. I should know. But it doesn’t have a breaking point. That’s the kicker. It’s permanent. Fixed. Like a deep scar or a broken heart it never really goes away. It lingers. It clings. Like clouded-over cellophane pulled taut over your thoughts. Trapping them like rats to fester and spawn until they take over and only the veiled version of you remains. All I can hope for is that it can be made flexible. That with enough stretching prodding massaging coaxing I can get it to let up, just enough, that the me you see can become the me I see, too. Is that too much to hope for? I’m coming to you from behind a veil. It’s part of me. But not the whole. Can you see it now?
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Wow! That’s intense.
Incredible energy conveyed from beginning to end. I love poetry that makes you feel it --and The Veil delivers, cheers 🥂