I don't know who wrote this, a friend found it scratched onto a wall panel

The Mask - Author Unknown

"What has been done to the Earth, has been done to you,
As to us all.
Every Rape. Every Murder,Every act of torture,
leaves it's scar on the landscape of the Soul,
And the outer bars cast shadows ,
on our mind.
Feel Them, They are your wounds,
They are all you might have been,
and will not be.
Cry for it, Mourn, Rage.

There are toxins in your blood,
Your dismembered parts lie scattered around you.

You prowl your own borders,
Looking for escape.
The wall is like glass, but stronger,
You can't get over it,
You can't get under it.
You can't get around it.

So you put on the Mask That hides you,
and you try to slip through,
How do you walk in this mask?
How does your body feel?

The mask covers you,
It Hides the barrier.
And Suddenly, You can't remember , where you were going
Or why.
And none of it seems very important anyway . . . . .

So you stop and sit.

And there, You can remain forever . . . . . . .

Or, you can take off the mask,
and put on the Tricky mask.
The Deceiving mask,
and try to slip through.

How do you walk in this mask?
How does your body feel?

And the barrier disappears
and you walk through.
And the path is clear, and green , and pleasant.
And you know it's the right way,
although from time to time,
You suspect that you haven't really gone anywhere. . . . . . . .
That you are back where you started from . . . . .

And there you can remain forever . . . . . . .

Or you can take the Mask off!
and put on the mask that pleases,
and try to slip through . . . .

How do you walk in this mask?
How does your body feel?

And everybody at the barrier is charming,
They make polite conversation, they serve tea.
and sympathize with your difficulties ,
With how hard it is to break through,
And you wouldn't want to offend them,
So you stay where you are.

And there, you can remain forever.

Or you can take off the mask,
and put on the Ugly mask,

And try to Smash through!

How do you walk in this mask?
How does your body feel?

You don't care who you offend.
Or what you Break.

The pleasant people scatter,
the tea cups shatter,

And you bash into the barrier,
Again, and Again!

Your flesh becomes pulp!
Your bones break!

and there, you can remain forever . . . . . . .

Or you can take the mask off.
Unmasked, You turn your face to the light that remains,
An Ember in the center, Juice of the Earth's living Heart,

The light survives, You survive,
and all may yet survive in you.

Inside the light, whisper makes a dry sound,
like the coiling of snakes,
coiling and uncoupling at the cell's core,

like the memory of being alive,
with all life living within you.

There is a way,
you knew it once, remember?

Memory sleeps,coiled, like a snake in a basket of grain
deep in the storehouse . . . . . . . . . .

Breathe Deep, let your breath take you down . . . . . . . . . .
Find your way there,
And you will find your way out . . . . . . . . . . . ."