The Mask

Emotion flows inside,
Like blood courses through veins, power like
An ocean in a storm, and
No way to escape
The ink provides a pathway, and it
Flows onto the page, but
No one can ever know.
(They’d find out too much.)
No one can ever know.

Rip the paper to shreds,
Light a match and watch, as the
Truth burns to nothing but
Ashes, gray, like your soul, and
No one can ever know.
(Never let it out, never let them in.)
No one can ever know.

Watch your dreams dissemble
Beauty set aflame
Cry as it dies the way
You are inside, and feel
Its pain, your pain, feel the
Mask on your face, the
Falseness in your eyes, the tears
Ready to spill, but they can’t, because
No one can ever know.
(They wouldn’t care enough to help.)
No one can ever know.

The paper’s burnt to nothing
The ashes lay still, smoking, and
Feeling so wrong again, hiding
Behind all your better instincts, and knowing
It can’t go on like this, it’s
Tearing you apart, and you’re concealing
Everything that they should know, but
No one can ever know.
(It would just be so much harder.)
No one can ever know.

Paint on the smile again, and hope that
No one like me notices, and
Hide the words you’ve written, from the
Depths of your heart, dripping with
All the pain you’re masking, because
Life is sweet to their knowledge, and
No one can ever know.
(It would only hurt us both.)
No one can ever know.

Tell everyone you’re just so happy, and
Hope they don’t see the tears
In your eyes, the broken heart you’re
Wearing on your sleeve, and lay awake late and
Write it down again, and remember
You can’t let them see, and light
Another match and watch, as the
Real you burns to dust, and gets
Blown away by a whisper of wind, and watch
The blood flow thicker, and
Watch the world grow darker, and
No one ever knew…
(They would’ve tried to stop me.)
No one ever knew.