• I don't want to take off the mask,
    I'm afraid that it'll hurt the ones who care about me,
    so the mask remains,
    hiding the how I feel.
    I feel as if I take off the mask,
    I will be hated,
    so the mask stays,
    but in the process,
    I have forgotten who I really am.
    I'm afraid to take the Mask away,
    to stop hiding how I really feel,
    what if I'm not normal?
    What if I'm an insane person who belongs in the loony bin?
    Would my friends leave me?
    Will I be alone like I had for so many years before?
    Come home and take off the Mask and cry in my pillow again and again?
    If the Mask of happiness is gone,
    my best friends will go with it,
    as if I were last month's style,
    gone and forgotten about, but still there, waiting to be used again.

    If the Mask is torn off of my body,
    I might hurt the ones I love,
    hurt the ones who care about me.
    If the Mask is going, my friends might leave me,
    they might abandon me to fight this war,
    the war I have already lost,
    the war that is pointless and ongoing.
    If the Mask is gone, for me, so is hope.
    The Mask lets me be with others,
    but if the Mask is gone,
    all I'm doing is suffering,
    and the others might go down with me,
    I'm keeping the Mask,
    just like I have for so many years,
    forgetting who I am,
    forgetting how to be myself.
    I wish the Mask could come off,
    but it won't without hurting the ones that care,
    Even just testing it hurts.
    My feelings will forever be concealed by the Mask at which I place on myself every day,
    at which I use,
    at which I rely.
    The sane part of my brain will forever be shoved to the front line of the war,
    confused and worried,
    because the insane part of my mind is struggling against the strong hold of the sanity.
    Forever wanting to come out,
    to get away from the Mask, but I will fail at any attempt.
    I want it all to go away,
    and I know it won't.
    It is a part of life that won't and can't go away,
    The Mask is a part of me,
    now and forever.