Friends look on

a delicately crafted disguise—

makeup smeared on, heavily applied

Her slight visage contoured perfectly,

Eyes pop, brows colored in.

Yet, eyes twinkle,

smile-lines ghost:

barely visible under

mounds of makeup masking

her extrinsic emotion,

a pathetic attempt to

stay true to her intrinsic self.

The group chortles,

cheers,

chiping away the chilled

glacier of sadness she squirrelled away.

The poor recluse,

hiding in plain sight,

she must paint her face,

wear her stilts and

prance around;

the ache she hides will

never be

found.

She locks a spinning vortex—

frozen protectively—

hiding her haunted heart,

just to surround herself

with ephemeral friends,

who will never

know

her

pain.