Do you want to hide it?

Show it?

It’s there at moments

when I see its face

peeping out from behind

the forced smile.

Illusion.

Protection?

The tension-inside and out,

flowing ever so slowly

across your character mask.

 

The show, the show,

must go on, on and on,

for this is what you have

been given, and give out

without a sound, even if we

cannot hear discordance

coming in waves from the look

in your eyes and the wanting

in your half-open mouth.

 

10/9/2025