Teresa T. Chappell
with lines from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Masquerade”
The face in the mirror stares
back at me, though it is not
mine. I notice the corners
of our mouth get stretched
into an uneven smile—
lips curled in a half grimace.
I watch invisible hands strap
a mask as visage, knotting
it in place so as not to slip & reveal
the violaceous pigment of the
under eyes. Masquerade, paper
faces on parade. The eyes are the only
things left for me to see, we must
be careful—keep them steady, keep
them dry. Hide your face so the world
will never find you. I observe us
for a few minutes more.
We are a good actress.
***
Teresa T. Chappell is a poet passionate about tethering the unseen onto the material. She is a Princeton in Asia Teaching Fellow and a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College. She graduated with a B.A. in Creative Writing and French Language and Literature, as well as with a minor in Chinese Language. Apart from writing, her favorite hobby is eating (though she was once told that eating is not a hobby).