Behind All Those Layers

Written by Audrey Lau

Who are you?

When you rip away all the layers

What do you have left?

Darkness?

Colours?

Words?

An identity is a friend,

A shadow,

A limb.

It may change but,

There’s always a part,

That always stays the same.

Shrouded in a shadow blacker

Than the darkest hole.

Deep down in your being,

Behind all those layers.

It jumps

It hides

It runs

A movement.

Somewhere deep

Into the black.

It’s there,

Hiding behind all those layers.

Trapped there,

Out of sheer will.

It was always here,

Lingering.

Waiting.

Who are you?

When you rip away all the layers

What do you have left?

Darkness?

Colours?

Words?

No,

All that is behind those layers is

You.

Hiding in the black,

Crouched,

Shrouded in shadow.

The silence is

Deafening

Roaring

Howling.

But why is there

So much noise

In all this silence?

People surround you,

Everyday.

You walk among others,

Just like you.

On the street,

At work,

At school.

People make noise.

It reverberates,

It echoes.

Everyone is told,

To be loud,

To be special,

To be unique.

But if everyone is loud,

Is there anyone

Who is unique

Anymore?

Where is the uniqueness,

In everyone

Being told

To be individual?

Our identities

Are like snowflakes.

They all look like the others,

But are never the same.

Who are you?

When you rip away all the layers

What do you have left?

Fragments of memory?

Monster in a pit?

A husk of a soul?

No,

What is behind those layers

Is you.

Your identity,

Shrouded in a shadow blacker

Than the darkest hole.

My identity

My shadow

My limb

My friend.

Always by my side,

I wear it on my sleeve.

My identity changes with me.

We’ve been together,

Since the day I was born,

Like a built in friend.

My identity ,

Might sometimes change,

But there is always a part

That will remain the same.