Masquerade

Masquerade

Charles Beckford

Why do you look at me with such contempt

Are you searching for a devil

Your eyes pass judgement—scanning the crowd for a partner

O’ we’re the minority—yet we compose the majority of your problems

Masks adorned on your face suddenly reveal the scorn in your eyes

Hide your fake pleasantries so that your hatred may breathe

Behind masks—all these masks

Is just another on top of an existing one

What a grand ball, we waltz the dance macabre while feets away

There’ll be no toes to step on—just bodies to avoid

I wore a black dress—dare to follow me throughout the night

Be sure to avoid me in the scarlet light within the darkest room

I will hide myself so that you’re forgiven

This is no choice but an obligation and consideration of your fears

Even while you cower behind ivory gauze—you still stand above me

I’m sick and not for the reasons you think

I am no harbinger of death with my tangled black veil

This flesh is not diseased but that hatred of yours might fester

Don’t spread it with lies—not while young chaos bleeds disorder

You say that I am a blight on humanity’s unmarred skin—

And you? Shall I lay out your defilements on empty beds?

Dripping poison produced from your medicine cabinet into the mouth of humanity—

Reduced to your sins so that you may feel compelled to pull glass from your own eye

Drink to your own drug because you can’t handle feeling my pain

Exceptions, extra precautions, o’ you never know!

Do not look at me with such contempt

I am not your folk devil to terrorize

Do not demonize me

Charles Beckford, amidst the COVID­19 situation, has faced a lot of racism, unwanted behaviour, and comments due to their background and how they look. Beckford has sent letters to public places where they felt a lot of people were affected due to discrimination and uninformed folks. Most notably, these letters were spurred from witnessing a McMaster University student being verbally harassed in public for wearing a surgical mask.

Photo by Cheng Feng on Unsplash.