Wednesday, April 6, 2011

We wear the mask




We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,


It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--


This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,


And mouth with myriad subtleties.


Why should the world be overwise,


In counting all our tears and sighs?


Nay, let them only see us, while


We wear the mask.


We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries


To thee from tortured souls arise.


We sing, but oh the clay is vile


Beneath our feet, and long the mile;


But let the world dream otherwise,


We wear the mask!


We all wear masks. Its just apart of our nature to hide certain things from different people. We show how we want others to perceive us. This isn't deception, it is merely a tactic to save face. Smiles hide sorrow, laughs hide cries, joy hides pain. At the end of the day, the only person we are being 100% honest with is ourself. As we get closer to those in our lives, layers of the walls we have up come down, but the mask stays on always. Is it possible to fully remove it? Only when we look in the mirror do we see our true self.

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