We Wear the Masks by Mario Collier

Homage to Maya Angelou’s rendition of Paul Lawerence Dunbar’s, “We Wear the Masks.”

The Face

I became the face that displaced and raped.
I removed the innocence with no right or permission as I perfected the face.
I dishonor ancestral memory with my face smiling like an ape.
In all my glory hee- hee, band ha- ha, I served my race in disgrace.
I removed the innocence with no right or permission as I perfected the face.
I misguided and prided my actions on acceptance from other’s face.
In droves we bafoon like a naked-ass baboon with pie all over our faces.
We calling that swag? I say it is a drag and dragging embarrassment all over our faces.
I removed the innocence with no right or permission as I perfected the face.
My face is a reflection of learned insurrection awaiting battle with the face in the mirror.
The battle rages on in video and song while the real face sits back with a smile.
Laughter of accomplishment from centuries of dominance the reflection begins to get clearer.
I cut my head to spite his face an act of valor for my race and wiping the blood God handed me a towel.
I removed the guilt with right and permission as I perfected the face.

Actors

They play a role with survival in mind instincts the leading star.
They know not a thing the script they winged as their language comes from afar.
With whip and master, they created laughter, as now this is where they are.
No Oscar or Emmy just Bob and Jimmy armed with a noose and a bar.
Illiterate they say while they act and play thinking about this generational scar.
Ducking their heads and enduring atrocities with bodies revealing the mar.
Brave as lions they stayed in character the likes of Portier they were on par.
I write this in their breath alive defeating death fully aware of their part.

The Culmination

I disrespected my ancestors when I wore the face of oppression.
My actions derailed all of their hard work holding character amid the slave master’s violent obsession.
Nevertheless, just like them, I learned, and today I know better.
I raped the creativity of young men when I influenced them with lies.
I erased every scene acted by my ancestors and portrayed master as disguise.
Nevertheless, just like them, I learned, and today I know better.
I replaced the whip with a gun and turned it on people that look like me, disgraceful.
I took the oppressor’s drugs and sold them to my elders destroying their ambition, distasteful.
Nevertheless, just like them, I learned, and today I know better.
I robbed possessions preoccupied by poison posing as possibility, possessed.
I manipulated young girls grabbing grains of their chastity with granulated glitter, grotesque.
Nevertheless, just like them, I learned, and today I know better.
Today I represent my ancestors with pride on my face no longer acting or wearing masks in a scene, living my truth, their truth, our truth, –blood of a slave heart of a King (Nas).

Mario Collier #238834
MTU 1728 West Blue Water Highway
Ionia, MI 48846
or @ Jpay.com