Old Familiar Face Beneath Crumbling Mask
A heavy vent piece I made about the state of the country and stuff that was going on at the time. Not much to say that the poem itself doesn't already say. This was also made back in August 2020, it was a productive month.
Old Familiar Face Beneath Crumbling Mask
By:A.X. Bueno
I'm almost past the point of needing this mask
Getting to this point has been no single small task
There's been a lot of things that have been building and happening to get us to this point
The point where I can just start throwing away my disguise
I've been using purposeful divisions, false messiahs, and sometimes blatant lies
Lies I watch many bend into mental pretzels to defend rather than admit they might be wrong
It's funny watching you people fight each other as I do my best to advance every day
Of course I refer only to the lies and misinformation that are so frequently spread
Rest assured there are plenty of valid fights to be had that fill me with hope and glee and you presumably with dread
I have done so much and have so many ways of getting what I want
I suppose it's a bit prideful to continue to taunt
But I don't care I've gotten away with so much
While you bicker amongst yourselves about what has and hasn't been caused by my touch
Let's make one thing very clear
Despite the protestations of some I've been and continue to be here
Sometimes I'm driven back and must put back on the appropriate guise
But I've lived here for many years and now I'm back on the rise
You can try to debate me and compromise and those are welcome gestures
For the most part I feed on those things while me and my easily influenced crowd continue with our ventures
I've done a lot recently I'm sure you know
I've threatened your rights, made you afraid for your most vulnerable, and shown how close your entire system is to collapse
I've also irreparably corrupted your protectors, thrown your elections into chaos, and turned
you against each other using nothing but your misguided anger and fears
As well as slowly destroying your wildlife, cutting the budget to your essential services, and just making life harder for all just for an extra buck
I think you've just finally run out of luck
Of course those are just the broad strokes of things I have done
There's plenty of individual acts to show all the ways and areas where I won
But discussing all the complexities of those might take a good chunk of a year
You've always taken pride in being free of me
But the truth is in terms of fighting me you've done far worse than your peers
You say you house the brave but I've gorged on both your and their fears
I guess my point is you need to realize that I'm already here
I've been here since the beginning and will be here even if you become the past
My name is fascism and my mask has become less and less needed these days
If you want to be better, actually fight me and keep me away
There's a number of ways but just know if you don't I'll continue to be here
You've gotten somewhat better at fighting me through all the stress of this year
But I'm the thing behind the mask and I'll still find ways to weaponize your bigotry, hatred, ignorance and fear