The Mask
My heart did don a mask one day
Now do you wonder why?
For I’m too scared to show the world
I’m weak enough to cry.
It’s donned the mask of smiles
Of saying “I’m okay”,
Of feelings never mentioned
If the peace I’d thought they’d sway.
For I thought I’d be well-liked;
I’d thought that I’d belong,
If I’d wear this martyr-mask of mine
And show them I was strong.
So now they call me pleasant
Yet it’s not the me that’s real,
For a heart is not connectable
When you’ve robbed its right to feel.
And as my mask grew bigger
I watched it shrink my me,
For I felt compelled to shape myself
To what the world wants me to be.
I’m marching all alone now
In this useless masquerade
Where passerbies don’t stop to cheer
For life’s not a charade.
How can you know the actor’s thoughts
As he stands there on the stage?
Or see the young bird learn to fly
If it’s locked up in its cage?
How can you glue the shards of glass
If you never knew they broke?
Or take back hurtful words
That you never knew you spoke?
I tried to protect others
By hiding deep within
But still they’re getting hurt now
Because they’re not invited in!
For if they’d come I’m scared to know
What monsters they would find
That wear the mask of “all is good”
And act too sweet and kind.
So as you see, I became my mask
And I caused my heart to die,
For beneath this martyr-mask of mine
I’m now to numb to cry.
I’ve lost that gift of living
We’re now too far apart,
So if you’re ever in the graveyard
Please bring me back… my heart.
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