West Coast Battle

The mask as a disguise, to amuse to terrify Beginning in man’s first frigthened ceremonies Intimidating, punishing, shaming, exorcising, Protecting with pointed beak in an aromatic camouflage Time does not alter man’s rituals of compulsive assimilation The angst the agitation relentless since time began Man’s uncertainty and fascination the possibility of eterniity Here it is again in sweet scented carnival celebrations In beaches and cities, in smoke filled mountains and towns In deadly hospitals’ vapors and sharp clinical smells Near wrinkled drying faces, the soft gasping young, The sounds of sick whispers, the caws of unbelievers Youth still laughs dancing in the sand daring the winds to strike While we who have aged knowing how cruel life can be Gaze at the orange skies in a blackened moonllight Trying to just breathe.