The Mask

Night enters through the narrow opening,

wearing a gilded mask with raven feathers

 rising above  two hollow eyes

silver and gold tassels hang

like trim around a bordello lamp,

ready to reveal and capture,

 the one who can look in and see

 the dancing  horse hidden in the grassy field.

Eyes wide open, don’t look away,

As the dancing horse stares

The  night covers their innocence,

Lighting strikes like a marked dagger

 As the rider steps deeper and deeper

 where the dancing horse bows and leaps away,

Are you inside me the mask wonders?

The  rider and horse skip through the night

Teasing and touching the morning

Revealing  the other side

Filled with candy canes and fairy tales

That only a few dare to take

 Eyes wide shut, the night slips back

As the hollow eyes reflect

the horse and the rider inside.

Two Oceans

One side is flat

calm in the morning,

with green and blue reflections,

but dark and eerie as the full moon

casts a pathway

along the horizon.

The other side

White caps cover the cold waters

 full of hills with crisp breezes

 and tall mountain tops

 that thrust  upward

 from the bottom of a time long gone.

The hot and humid

The cool and breezy

both capture and seduce you

like a trance from a magician’s spell.

The hot  air strikes

Like a branding iron

burning  into raw skin

But the cold is the past

And comforts

like a woolen  blanket on a snowy night.

I can paint them on canvas

Write about them

Like a man and woman

Moving in sync  for the first time.

Touching both,

Feeling both,

Living both.

Two oceans

On the opposite sides

Becoming  one.

Bio: Karen Herzog has been a journalism/film teacher for twenty years in Miami, Florida, and is currently Media Specialist at Braddock Senior High.

Herzog has also taught at Miami-Dade College and University of South Florida. She holds A BA from Florida State University, a BS and MS from Florida International University, an MFA from the University of Miami, and an MLS from the University of South Florida. Her interests include reading, writing, politics, film, social issues, painting, and photography.