Behind the mask

Defying much of that which is presumed regarding communication, all of us must now confirm with our eyes – the eyes that cannot lie – the speech of our veiled lips, tongues, mouths, and the expressions of our lower faces.

The lips, when caressed, soothed, with lip whip, lip gloss, lipstick – most natural naked, pinkest rose, reddest red, or blackest black – despite all, and still, grant speech a mellifluousness, a kindness, a gentleness, a voluptuousness, that, again, cannot but be expressed in the eyes.

And beginning the day, punctuating it, or ending it without a mask, those long-concealed proponents of your hearts and minds, the lips, revelling now in their unconstrained disclosure – soft and sensual, the kiss of lipstick yet remaining – may relish or ravish in their new-found freedom.