The Mask

The Mask You hooked me with your charming ways And I fell hard and fast. I couldn’t have believed you If you said it wouldn’t last. I didn’t know what hit me when you started with your scorn. What should have been my harbor, quickly became my storm. I tried and tried to please you, jumping through the hoops you held. And when I couldn’t reach them, hard to the ground I fell. So then I walked on eggshells, hoping that they wouldn’t break and cause you to say things to me my spirit couldn’t take. I begged you for some kindness; my lowest point in life. You sneered and spewed more insults at this shell that was your wife. One day your mask slipped off your face and shattered to the floor. And I saw what lurked behind it, knowing I could take no more. Left picking up the pieces while you deceived my family, I had to grieve alone and watch you reap their sympathy. Someday your mask will slip again, your lies will be exposed. And you’ll stop being lauded for the fraud that you have sold. Next time that you go hunting for another heart to take, I pray you never find one just to pillage and forsake. I’m left now with this lesson, having learned it once before: Don’t tell yourself it’s sunny while you’re standing in a storm. And guard your heart with sword and shield, for there’s darkness you can’t see. Love shouldn’t make your heart break, but rather set it free.