The Mask

Chains tightly cling to my ankles, 

    Showing no sign of releasing. 

   Cuffs dig into my wrists, 

   Blood oozing out of the anchoring bondage wounds. 

  I am dragged along by an alternate of me. 

The mask. 

 

On the mask I am happy, smiling, laughing. 

Underneath I am fearful, crying, trapped. 

I have grown envious of the mask. 

Never scared of anything, loved by everyone. 

And here I remained, confined inside. 

Frightened by everything, hated by everyone. 

Envious of my own creation. 

I carved the mask with the dreams of what I wanted to be, 

But simply cannot be. 

Created for my protection of the outside world, 

But had taken over. 

No one registers that it’s only a mask, 

That I am still inside,

Listening, wishing, hoping. 

I am chained away within my body, 

As the mask plays my role in company. 

I want to escape, 

But the outside world is too fierce for my gentle spirit. 

 

My life is changing, 

As the mask is chipping away from age. 

It can’t last forever.

The chains are loosening and I can see gleams of light,

While I make my attempts for freedom. 

The time is now.

The mask begins to let go of my limbs. 

I rip the remainder of what had controlled me off of it’s encasement, 

Sealed around my soul.

I have become a victor of a battle that took place inside my heart. 

I broke free from the prison, 

Took the place the mask had stolen from me, 

Without alerting a soul of my struggling from the start.

This poem is about: 
Me

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