Common ground

Contest entry- Title-



Common ground,




Pain is something I have seen.

Pain is something I have heard.


I have felt it.I have watched it. I have caused it.
I have felt it. So have you.
At last a common ground to share with you. A place a nation comes to understand its foe.




I will tell you mine ,and you will tell me yours.




I do not speak of physical, of things which heal through time. No this is much darker,deeper,something hidding just inside.
My pain it wears a mask,it has a smiling face.
And yours!, look closely, it has one much the same.
Mine hides in hope, it hides in laughter, it even hides in tears.
It changes with the place.




Moving face to face.





Under it's mask below the smile,behind the cheerful laughing eyes. There something is much deeper, something hides inside.
A prison that I can't escape,Iron bars with crushing strength that grind against my heart.
Trapped there I can't escape. I'm left to just contend.

I made this place myself,these bars I built alone.
Protection needed, I created. My enemies it baffled, No emotion could I show.

No person did I fear.

Or was that the mask I've hid behind,all these wasted years?
My enemies were close,my family they could be.
All hopes,all dreams,all crushed by fear.


The mask became a face.





I changed when freedom was taken.When those who hurt me were those I loved the most. Now my protection is a prison.
The mask is my own face.


But no matter what I try I cannot move it from it's place!
You see, I am barred inside. Not free to chose my way. Others make it for me.I am doomed to wait.
Their prisoner, or my own. I had to make a choice.

So now you see my smiling face, my cheerful eyes aglow.
The days move on ,the weeks blend in ,and then the years go by.
Where does time really go?
Freedom I awaited a chance to show myself. But nothing changed ,it's still the same. It all just stays the same.



Nothing. Ever. Changes.



This pain I have it's there in you! I recognize the face! The cheerful laugh, the smiling eyes. With something deep inside.
You heard mine, may I hear yours? I know you have the same.
Pain I know, Pain I've seen. Not the one that heals with time. Pain that always stays the same.


I've lost my heart, I wear this mask. Anger took its place.
But look I see you have one too! Is yours also fixed in place?
If not I beg you quickly,discard it! Cast it far away!


Else you suffer fate as I.






The mask becomes your face.