Said the old man,
"In this life I live by one rule only."
He paused for suspense,
enjoyed how tense the youth became
at his pending wisdom.
"Do not attempt to separate
a man from his masks unless
you fully intend to accept what lies behind.
For often you will find not what you thought you would, but something much worse."
Said the youth,
"All men must be cursed
to live under so many masks.
All men must be doomed."
There was a silence that filled the room,
half knowledge, half ignorance, the two manage to exist in peace, but one was soon to leave for once again the old man spoke:
"All men are haunted, all men have demons,
all men are seeking relief to the torture
of not knowing what to fight them with,
and all men are terrified."
And with these last words the old man died leaving behind a youth
with more knowledge and less laughter.
It's amazing how truth,
after it is revealed, can dim the laughter.
"All men are terrified,"
whispered the youth to himself,
and in the darkness of the room
he put that thought on the shelf and walked away from all that made the sky gray.
The truth waited.
Grew dusty and old,
wrinkled with the slow decay of time,
and when the youth returned dusty and old, wrinkled by the slow decay of time,
he remembered.
And took it down, and dusted it off,
shook the years and memories
and held it up to the light.
It was still pure albeit worn, but it held.
And the youth, now old, understood what his old man had tried to tell him.
For in the truth lay all of his demons
and his own many masks.
"Only old men can live by this truth, I'm afraid, for only they know this regret and dismay."
And as his own boy entered
fresh faced and complete,
he looked at him sadly and began to repeat,
"In this life I live by one rule only.
Do not attempt to separate
a man from his masks unless
you fully intend to accept what lies behind.
And know that all men are terrified."
He knew he would not be around to remind this boy, but perhaps that was how it was to be.
It was in the living out of life
that it meant to be free.
SK
