The Mask

The Mask - Summer Haque (Fairmont Schools, Eighth Grade)

A mask muffles her silent screams

A face adorned with an amusing guise,

all to hide tears behind her eyes.

The world dances and smiles and sings,

while she is bound by tethered strings.

The mask, crafted, built, and painted, to be a shield,

to cloak a throbbing heart,

a reeling mind, impossible to wield.

With every laugh, a hollow sound.

Each gesture echoes, a little drowned.

Behind the veil which continues to grow,

the heart beats, banished from the show.

Her face began to change,

And the mask?

The mask did, too.

Etched into her skin, a constrained grin.

The mask

It has become so consistent,

so lovable, so insistent.

So despite her yearn to rip it off,

The mask stays on.