Postagens
THE MATTER BEHIND THE MASK
There are beings who spend their lives
polishing their own surface
so that no one discovers
the stone that exists beneath it.
They learn to smile at the right moment,
to wear certainty,
to hide their fractures
with the elegance of one who transforms
a lie into architecture.
To appear is easy.
All it takes
is a sufficiently smooth surface.
To be is something else.
To be requires descending.
Descending to where the light cannot reach,
where pressure compresses the bones of the soul,
where every layer stripped away
reveals a truth less comfortable
than the one before it.
Every stone carries a history
that its surface does not tell.
There are minerals that endure millions of years
beneath heat, weight, and silence
before revealing their true structure.
We want recognition
before the metamorphosis.
We want to appear strong
without crossing our own mountain.
We want to appear profound
without enduring the darkness necessary
to reach the depths.
And we build identities
as one erects statues upon ruins,
until we forget which part of us is matter
and which part has become monument.
But erosion does not respect masks.
Time scrapes.
Life fractures.
Suffering shifts the layers.
And one day,
when there is no longer enough surface
to hide what we are,
only the original matter will remain.
No applause.
No witnesses.
No appearance.
Only the stone.
And then comes the question
that no mask can withstand:
if no one could admire what you appear to be,
what would remain
of what you call being?
J. Kasra — All rights reserved
