Re: "Behind The Mask" / Will Dockery

Will Dockery wrote:

>
Behind The Mask

>

I can see her
like a ghost
through these sixteen years.

>

She comes riding
across sand and ashes
on a North Carolina
ginger mare.

>

I sometimes see
painted wagons
behind her
sixteen banners
flutter in the breeze.

>

These images
then fade
like the memories
I've been hiding.

>

Behind the mask
shielded from tomorrow.
Behind the mask
I can conceal my sorrow.

>

Across the swamp
we were separated
from the years of crying
and being elated.

>

We three worked
at the baseball factory
while we lived
with my cousin Jenny.

>

Behind the mask
we worked
in the powder room.
Behind the mask
in that
smoky factory gloom.

>

The new year
rolled around
we found peace
in this small town.

>

Far away
from her mother
watching detectives
sent by her father.

>

Behind the mask
I still recognize her.
Behind the mask
still surprised
at the allure.

>

-Will Dockery (8-2-20)

>

----
From the Shadowville Mythos poetry blog:
https://shadowville-mythos.blogspot.com/2021/10/behind-mask.html

>
Quite excellent, Doc....