The Masquerade Ball

Costumes and masks of various hues,

Every nook of the floor, they fill,

Identity of even the closest,

From the rest, they skillfully conceal.

Vile black, masked by lily white,

Basest evil, cloaked in purity;

The charade is on, to conceal the form,

From the stark and bitter reality.

Countless faces hiding behind masks,

Make this world, a masquerade ball.

Elaborate facades deceive the viewer,

Until the veils of deceit fall.

A smiling visage may well mask tears,

An innocent mien, a treacherous face.

Many a Brutus, may stab Ceaser,

Still, unabashedly meet his gaze.  

Yet, when the storm of a crisis erupts,

And blows the deceitful mask away,

The perfidy stands exposed in all its starkness,

Shamed, the wearer has nothing left to say. 

Deepak Sethi