The mask
Over my mouth
Hiding my best way
To tell you how I feel
Disguised affection
Still burns true
Full of tease, sauce
And flip
The music stops
until we pick up
Other instruments
and scores,
as we must
As we do
You know that
I am
Smiling beneath the mask
For you
Now you have to
make eye contact
And read there my
Smile
As it bounces
Through muffled words
My fingers wave
in my own sign
Language
Forming a smile
That is not hidden
It is
A bond
You and I share
A new article of
Clothing
That when removed
Coveys trust
And desire
My fingertips await
to brush your face,
feel your smile and
await your fingers entwine
I am smiling now
As I think
About what it means
when we move the mask
together
Author Bio:
Tom Squitieri is a three-time winner each of the Overseas Press Club and White House Correspondents’ Association awards for his work as a war correspondent, with reporting from all seven continents. His poetry has appeared in Ariel Chart, The Raven's Perch, Scarlet Leaf Review, Twisted Vine, The Literary Yard, Eskimo Pie, The Stardust Review, Wanderlust Journal, Shanghai Writer’s Workshop, No Strings Attached, Style Sonata and The Griffin’s Inkpot, in the book "Put Into Words My Love,” and was selected for Color: Story 2020. He writes most of his poetry while parallel parking or walking his dogs, Topsie and Batman.
Over my mouth
Hiding my best way
To tell you how I feel
Disguised affection
Still burns true
Full of tease, sauce
And flip
The music stops
until we pick up
Other instruments
and scores,
as we must
As we do
You know that
I am
Smiling beneath the mask
For you
Now you have to
make eye contact
And read there my
Smile
As it bounces
Through muffled words
My fingers wave
in my own sign
Language
Forming a smile
That is not hidden
It is
A bond
You and I share
A new article of
Clothing
That when removed
Coveys trust
And desire
My fingertips await
to brush your face,
feel your smile and
await your fingers entwine
I am smiling now
As I think
About what it means
when we move the mask
together
Author Bio:
Tom Squitieri is a three-time winner each of the Overseas Press Club and White House Correspondents’ Association awards for his work as a war correspondent, with reporting from all seven continents. His poetry has appeared in Ariel Chart, The Raven's Perch, Scarlet Leaf Review, Twisted Vine, The Literary Yard, Eskimo Pie, The Stardust Review, Wanderlust Journal, Shanghai Writer’s Workshop, No Strings Attached, Style Sonata and The Griffin’s Inkpot, in the book "Put Into Words My Love,” and was selected for Color: Story 2020. He writes most of his poetry while parallel parking or walking his dogs, Topsie and Batman.
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