Don't Be Fooled By The Mask I Wear

Don't be fooled by me.
Don't be fooled by the face I wear
For I wear a mask. 

I wear a thousand masks-
   masks that I'm afraid to take off;
     and none of them are me.    
 

Pretending is an art that's second nature to me 

  but don't be fooled,
  For my sake, don't be  fooled.
I give the impression that I am secure,
that all is sunny and unruffled
   within me as well as without;
    that confidence is my name
     and coolness my game,
    that the water is calm
   and I am in command;
  and that I need no one.
But don't believe me. Please!

My surface may seem smooth,

but my surface is my mask,
my ever-varying and ever-concealing mask.
 

Beneath lies no smugness, no complacence.
Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, in aloneness.

But I hide that.

I don't want anybody to know it.

I panic at the thought of my
    weaknesses and fear being exposed.
That's why I frantically create a mask
          to hide behind -  
A nonchalant, sophisticated facade - 
          to help me pretend,
To shield me from the glance that knows.

But such a glance is precisely my salvation,
   my only salvation,
       and I know it.

That is, if it's followed by acceptance;
   if it's followed by love.
It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself
   from my own self-built prison wall,

   from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
It's the only thing that will assure me
   of what I can't assure myself -
     that I am really something. . .

Who am I, you may wonder.

I am someone you know very well.

I am every man you meet.
I am every woman you meet.

I am every child you meet.

I am right in front of you.

Please. . . love me.

Adapted from Seeds of Greatness - Denis Waitley, 1983.