Mask

I wear a mask, carefully made, Of shine and strength, a bold facade. It hides my pain, my deepest fears, And guards my soul through fleeting years. A smile here, a nod to show, But who I am, they’ll never know. The world sees dark, blurred and faint, While I remain beneath restraint. For masks are shields, a safe disguise, Yet also prisons in their guise. They keep me whole but hold me tight, A heavy weight both day and night. The longer I wear it, the more it clings, Becomes my face, with binding strings. And still, I long to shed this guise, To live as me, no compromise. But now I see, the mask is me, A complex truth, my duality. A paradox I must embrace, My mask and I, one single face.