Living Behind A Mask
When you live behind a mask
It is quite a hard task
Knowing things are falling apart
Needing help but you don’t know how to ask
Instead you give the impression
That life is a great bliss
Because you don’t want to risk
The façade of happiness
In which you now do bask
There is solace in the bondage of illusions
With rehearsed scenes of imitations
Geared towards the preservation of one’s reputation
But in reality, you are just playing along
Because this is a reality play played so well
Where the smiles are all staged
And everything is scripted
Yet it’s difficult to tell
What’s real from what’s actual
Never breaking character, so realistic so natural
All Oscar worthy performances, if I were asked
The actors are so gifted
Living life behind a mask
It wasn’t always like this
For at some point or another
From a time not so long ago
There must have been some genuine authenticity
Before it stage left exit
And on in its stead to reprise the role
Came it’s understudy
An actor/ress by the name of Pretense
The storyline is a tragedy at heart
A play in four parts
A fiction like costumes
That one might put on to gain attention
Gratitude or sympathy depending on the audience
Invoking applause for the cause
Applauding the cast
For keeping up the farce
Of living behind a mask
There is no character development
No growth, no meaningful change in their arc
They are in the same place
As they were at the start
In a sort of mirrored mirage
They continue living the deceit
Tethered to the imagined versions of themselves
In the charade of comfort that they think it provides
Living behind the mask for so long
They start to believe the mask is their real face
And the theatre their homeplace
Since the show has been on centre stage
© A.Williams, 1/23/2020