Poem: Unmasking the Mask

A contrarian poem to what Collins Enosh inspired. Masks…

Poem: Unmasking the Mask

The mask is a wearable for the face.
If it is an eye mask, you don’t want to see the world,
If it is a face mask, then you don’t want to show yours.
Then come the contagions — the two full years, remember?
Then came the designers, matching with your clothes.
Then the protests, the non-believers… the anti-mask squad
Then the ever-pervading cameras, how else would you hide?
Do masks hide fake? Not sure about that anymore.
If you can see the eyes, you will see the truth
That a mask can never withhold or conceal
And…come to this nation… I wear masks
Just to breathe, just to exist — so that makes
— wearing masks, a fundamental right.

~Ashok Subramanian © 2025

Collins Enosh has a way of writing. Simple, direct, and conversational.

Masks (The Poem)
Masks, why do you hide?
Is it because you are scared?
That people will hate
Your truest self?

….
Masks, do they even work?
Do not people know
That you are as fake,
As they are?

…
Unmask, it is time
Nothing will happen
If at all an accident
A moment of truth

…
Masks, not worth it
It takes a toll
Keeping track of
The lies.
-Collins Unmasked

“The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society