We wear the mask that grins and lies
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but O great Christ, our cries
to thee from tortured souls arise
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask.
-Paul Lawrence Dunbar
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So very true about the mask. We are so often the actor.
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