Foreword

A Taste Of Paradise is a poetry manuscript modified from a poetry
chapbook I wrote under the guidance of Dr. Ricardo Sanchez.

     - Stephen W. Cote
       July, 1995

A Taste Of Paradise

The Masquerade by Stephen W. Cote

A Puppet's Strings

          Warmed neath porcelain dreams
          Through open ears and eyes
          - a babe cried and sighed
          Feeling taut pulls from puppet strings

          Cradled in powdered arms of white
          Perfectly pristine parents hiding
          - ready for an evening of living and lying
          They delivered their child that night

          These designers and architects painted
          Sculpted this fleshy clay
          - layer upon layer, peeling away
          Birthing a facade trussed up in strings

The Photographer Man

          Remember - the photographer man

               He played by ours rules
               And made up his face
               Learning to dance in our mahogany school
               Capturing faces and souls on a negative's lace

          Do not forget - the photographer man

               Like a mirror in my dream
               There is my face as I might wish
               - comically, I laugh at who I am
               Is this me or someone I would miss ?

          In a prayer to be strong, one of my will
          Oh God, may I please forget him - please

Painted Faces

          Ceramic masks
          And painted faces
          Hiding emotions
          Genders and races

          Beneath tears
          And ripening grins
          Covering fears
          And bleeding-heart sins

          Ballroom masquerade
          Courtroom of clowns
          Giggling marmalades
          Mimes of frowns

Childhood's End - The Fantasy (part i)

          Christopher wept that night before the mirror
          - without the honesty of the dream's thrill
          Happily, his mother tucked him unknowingly in
          - the safety of the home up on the hill

          Studying his means for a childhood's end
          - he felt the embrace of a lonely fear at night
          He reached out to touch his friend, a white glass mask
          - it knew the face he would wear at night

          The banded hand he is destined to hold
          - will have its own promises to be told
          Safe in the status of a masquerade cast
          - a soul once warm, now twice sold

          Like the angel ice sculpture
          - "Will I ever return to it," he sighed
          "Never, I never can" he cried
          - "No one showed me how"


Childhood's End - The Fantasy (part ii)

          (Christopher)

          My mother and father awoke me
          - inside their life as it began to start
          And the only memory of the silence
          - the beating of a heart
          Is my only safety at night when on my feet
          - though when my mind is at rest, the path is too steep
          Lucifer, if I am with you, where am I ?
          - my life is far from worth to weep
          And for a sake that I may try
          - I am now before the man of sin, forbidden to be kind
          So many people who know my face
          - know there is nothing of interest behind
          Wet with sleep in comfortless dream
          - dancing together, alone in a quiet cry
          A clap of sound ... a flash of light
          - I am alive with a deaf ear and a blind eye
          I am only human, I can only lie
          - hidden in a mask that deafens years and blinds lives
          Loving caress of a porcelain grace
          - mother chose this particular face
          Sensual tidings in a ballroom ecstasy
          - I can only dream of childhood's end, my fantasy

Standard Heroes

          Somewhere down on the outskirts of town
          A couple dressed in tuxedo and gown
          Smile in a gale of echoing laughter
          Though the child laughed no more

          Their lips buttoned, their masks affixed
          With a fresh hand in their pockets, where fingers mix
          They hold brave faces in a straightjacket love
          With nothing on the water to float their goods above

          The days of innocence lay dwindling
          Before the children have silenced their singing
          All of their idols, everyone knows
          Are one more sect of standard heroes

Feelings

          (Katherine)

          Would you please state
          Something before I leave
          Perhaps if I'd sedate you
          You'd say how you feel

          If I walked with you, my hand in yours
          Would you occasionally smile
          Perhaps if I said I'd care more
          Would tomorrow last longer than a little while

          When the dance is over
          And the night is done
          One leaf gone from the clover
          We're in a game no one has won

          Children laugh in our ears
          And as we may dream by the moonlight
          Under our made up faces we will feel our years
          No longer looking into the sunlight

The Masquerade

          In the silence someone is screaming
          Down in the township tonight
          There is a masquerade ball in these very shadows
          And the masks are shining ever so bright
          Down through the gutters
          Where the lonely arise
          Stanching the rabid night's heat
          There is no escape from the street

          With ghosts lighting their faces
          They will be gone when the light of day comes
          And like a sainted lover
          They are only accidents on the graveled road of life




The Masquerade: Boys and Girls

          Girl in white
          Nice, so cute
          All trussed up
          In your birthday suit
          Locked up tight
          A china doll
          Face made over
          Can't see you at all

          Little boy, don't cry
          You've scraped your knee
          All bloodied over
          All covered in your mask
          All your sighs
          Tucked far away
          From mommie and daddi
          And everyone else you met today

Nightlife By The Gaslight

          Stepping out into the shade
          Into the nightlife by the gaslight
          Each glass grain of the masquerade
          Frightfully revealing an all to lonely quiet

          Teeth and nails, locks and barrels
          Under a reign of lawmen
          All too cute in busybody suits
          The storm it seems has been appeased by them

The Masquerade: In Retrospect

          Only light from above
          Will shine on me
          And make a shadow
          Into a facsimile
          Only light from above
          Can take from me
          This freedom of expression
          Masked in my anonymity
          Masquerade

Late In The Rain: Pornographic Water Dreams part i

          (Christopher)

          Standing out on my porch
          I watched the weather change
          One winter morn long ago
          Listening to the sky begin to age
          I remembered a time one night past
          When I knew that I'd only to try
          I kept the memory of your face close
          Listening to the echo of a long ago lie

          A tear cascaded and cleared
          The white away from my face
          It flowed unhindered and mirrored
          Against the ceramic grace
          Now I find myself standing
          Late and alone in the rain
          The cold bleeding and kissing
          Late, late in the rain

          (Katherine)

          Later on a night I remember
          My face clean and made up white
          My parents safely sleeping away
          Warmly embraced by night
          A rose-colored picture of you
          Decorates my desktop drawer
          Ruffling the feline I cherish so
          I wish I could feel more

          The weather has gone winter
          And the day is past due, done
          The night is finally over
          But the nightmare has only begun
          The morrow, perhaps I will dare
          And stand before the mirror
          As long as no one looks or cares
          Without my mask, I will have nothing to fear


          (Christopher)

          Standing on the corner
          Between two roads of a dream
          Watching the beasts of burden
          Happily bound into the team
          Your heart embossed on my mind
          And though the eye-holes I can see
          The way that you walk without fear
          Masked in your translucent bravery
     
          (Katherine - Upon seeing Christopher from afar)

          My heart skips and frolics
          But how could he ever love me
          A man who cannot bare to look into a mirror
          How can he dare say he could love me
          Tempted by faith and the crucifix way
          Sacrificing want and need for vanity
          Perhaps one day I will open my eyes
          And walk into the sunlight of sanity

Mystical Water Kiss: Pornographic Water Dreams part ii

          (Christopher to Katherine at the Masquerade)

          I would die for -
          For almost anything -
          But never, I would never -
          Die for you.

          I could dream -
          Of loving and -
          Caring for you, living with you -
          But never until death.

          I have but one life
          One life, one I choose to lead
          I have one life
          One life I have to bleed
          I have one wound
          One wound that impairs my heart
          I have one love
          One love ... until

          .... my mask shatters apart
                .... shatters apart
                        .... apart

          (Katherine to Christopher at the Masquerade)

          I would cry for -
          Many wishes that -
          Wishes that may come true -
          But never for you.

          I could cry for -
          Cry for a lifetime -
          Until I died for -
          Died since I forgot how to live.

          I can do anything -
          Anything I set my -
          Set my heart to -
          I could never love you

          I can dream of many things -
          Anything I want -
          That I want to dream to -
          But I could never dream that I love you.
                                     
          (Christopher to Katherine at the Masquerade)

          Listening - to the fall of the rain -
          Glistening - in a way that the angels play -
          Kissing - my mirror, pretending it's you -
          I wish, how I wish it were true

          - a night will come, when I will dearly miss you
          - a time will come, when I will never forget you

          Standing in the rain
          I made a promise, I made a wish
          Watching my white face finally flow away
          When I felt an angel's mystical water kiss.

          and then my mask fell from my face
          - and shattered from the task
          leaving an impression of the grace
          - my face only one more mask