MASK ME

Age is the best blacksmith for a mask

Forget every question you’ve ever asked

Keep your old youth in a hidden flask

Now you’re a grown up, grab your mask

Grab your mask

Your mask is just right for you!

10 years later...

A beautiful, elegant, masterful, perfected mask

Now the kids are all rats, just like your past

Parents all gasp, at all of the wrath

Kids hate the math, they love smoking grass

They sit in traps, only raise their hands

Never leave class, or you’ll get harassed

By who?

By the students?

Nope, by the 46 year old hall monitor who asks for a pass

I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL!

wait....I’ll be right back, I gotta do my homework

BE THE BEST! GET FIRST PLACE! WIN AT LIFE!BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, BE WHO YOU ARE!

(May not be eligible to win prize if the recipient does not fit the initial criteria distributed by the company. To find this criteria please refer to school textbooks, colleges and The American Dream. Nonconformity is not recommended according to company policy. Thank you for your participation.)

Now you’re a grown up, grab your mask

They sit in traps, only raise their hands

Only let them raise their hands, but never their spirits

Truth is in there somewhere, we hope you never hear it

It’s good there’s a lot of vagueness in those song lyrics

Otherwise I think we might have to stop being fearless

I need to be free so bad, like a bee, or a cat with a leash

I need the release

I need my own keys

I need to release

I need you to please

Start extending my lease

I need personal peace

I need to not tease

I need every piece

I need at least a goal to attempt to reach

I really need to­ ...... geez

I really need to cease

I really need a new mask

I need my mask to be just right

Not too long on the sides and not too tight

Not too heavy and not too light

Not too black and not too white

The colors need to be distributed at exact percentages with not a single improper measurement

My mask helps me get the next win

My mask sustains my perfection

My mask gets me connections

My mask gives me affection

It gives me affection from everyone and everything

My mask helps me dominate every competition

I win

Put on a mask

I lose

Put on a mask

I tie

Put on a mask

You die

Put on a mask

I lie

Under this mask

I try

To always mask

My lies

Under this mask

I try

To fight this mask

But I

Can’t ‘cause I asked

.... for this mask

Every victory demands sympathy for the enemy

I don’t get this B my teacher just sent to me

That means I’m just three notches beneath being perfect at these

Tests...I guess my best has to be better than your best

Otherwise I’m just another baby who didn’t get blessed

Baptized in illusions and uncomfortable jest

My fire was dowsed because it seemed like a pest

I confess I’m more scared of an F than death

You should take a point off because I forgot a period.

Take a day off, just let yourself get some rest

Really?

How the hell can I do that when everything depends on this

No no no no no no no.

You still don’t get it, that stuff doesn’t matter that much.

Ok?

Colleges let you in easy, there’s just an illusion that it’s hard.

Just relax. I didn’t have great grades either.

Really?

Yeah, yeah. It’s fine, it’ll be ok.

They try bring me back to reality

Try to show me dungeon actualities

Try to protect their parent’s masterpiece

But retrospect can’t justify casualties

Statistics can’t stop me from being panicky

Your past doesn’t save me from frantically

Cramming each night ‘till Uncle Sam says he’s sorry, but that this is the way it has to be

My confidence in foresight is falling rapidly

Give up on giving up sporadically try to act radically

But they keep tackling me to say that nobody’s broken this saddle’s seat

But they’ve cut the cattle’s knees

And thrown them in with the decapitated sheep on that stranded street

Now I have to convince myself that that was deep

They sit in traps, only raise their hands

Only raise their hands.

HEY! HEY! RAISE YOUR HANDS!

COME ON NOW! PUT UP YOUR HANDSHAVE A GOOD TIME NOW! PUT UP YOUR HANDS! LET’S PARTY NOW!

PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT ON YOUR MASK PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT ON YOUR MASK PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT ON YOUR MASK PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT ON YOUR MASK PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT ON YOUR MASK PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS PUT UP YOUR HANDS

pssstttt...put on your mask

I leave the party feeling anxious as a trigger

My liver filled with liquor and wispy whispers

Watch the fancy facádes of all these hipsters

The stitched up tear ducts of my baby sitter

But her tears are as old and strong as our rivers I ripped apart my coat so I could feel the shivers

Use the scraps to craft a mask for the winter

Would rather die than remove the splinters

I HATE SCHOOL!

p sstt...psstt...put on your mask

I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL!

wait...sorry...I have to get to class

I have to run, have to run fast

The future flashes past the past

Gotta cash in my rations for class

Come in first so my image can last

No crowns, I will burn my regal sash

Even though you’re as much a genius asthe teenage brats

that could’ve solved cancer but didn’t ‘cause they were arrested for possessing weed and hash

GRIT your teeth and gnash

STAMP your feet and mash

‘Cause you’re still SLEEPING with that mask

The mask that suffocates fears

The mask that liquefies tears

The mask that impresses peers

The mask that glorifies sneers

The mask that never disappoints

If you think you don’t need this poem, I think you missed the point

Because I still wear that mask that covers my mouth

Covers my frown and eyebrows

Come to think of it..... I’m wearing a mask right now