Behind the mask

A smiling face,
But the laughter doesn’t reach the eyes.
Happy times,
But the good mood doesn’t set in.
The words are all perfect,
But somehow they don’t sound right.
A fulfilling life, lived for the world to see,
But inside – it is all void.
In the clamour, shouts and celebrations,
The tiny voice for help goes unheard.
Nobody cares to look beyond,
Behind the mask.

The pain says hidden, Deep inside.
Buried under the avalanche
Of dreams that never got the wings to fly.

The lies are all covered up
With a hope so flimsy,
A single tear –
And it will all come crashing down.

Thoughts of stardust and unicorns
Keep the cold at bay.
Ghosts of memories of the past,
Ring like a distant echo.

Now just a shadow of the person, I used to be;
In layers, I’m covered,
A stranger in the mirror.

Like a thread going through the needle-
The truth and the false,
The reality and the fantasy,
Are wound together so intricately
Nothing can separate them.

Like pages falling from a book,
They fade away.
One by one.
And all that remains – is a beautiful ruin.

The mask keeps slipping off
And it takes everything in me
To hold it together.
So I tell them, I am okay.
That I am doing fine.
The cheeks hurt from holding a smile
That feels unreal and brittle.

Because the world isn’t ready
To see the tragedy.
To realize; somewhere, Another soul is getting lost.

But what does it matter?
We are all in this race.
Trying to outrun,
To see who can wear the mask for the longest time.

Nobody cares for the broken child inside,
Because we take pride in ourselves,
For being functioning adults
Who has to survive the battle of life.

A fledging hand
Shoots out of the darkness.
May be all hope is not lost
Maybe I can find myself, again.