Despite the mask

You’re somebody’s child,
like me, like the rows
of other men behind
their masks, shouldering
guns and threatening.

Don’t you want
to come out from behind
that screen, to look into
my eyes and to be seen
by mine, to be seen at last?

Or are you afraid?
Do you fear what
the men who sent you
claimed you are
confronting? But it’s
just us. Just us.

Take off your mask.
See us here before
you, facing you, and touch
my hand as gently as
you would your mother’s.