Unmasked

 

I saw you as someone who could always do 

almost anything that you had a mind to.

Everything came easy as if on a silver platter...

and I always felt 'deficient,' not that it matters.

It’s funny how distracted we are caught, up in illusion

how good fortune in others causes distrust;

caught up in the struggles that shape our conclusion

that life is much easier for anyone but us.

We don’t see the worries that someone else carries,

that none are exempt from the thunder and rain

nor how their aloofness, their absence of worry

is worn to disguise deeper sadness or pain.

In a moment of doubt when the mask slips away,

and we finally realize we’ve been duped­­–

and just for an instant see their pain on display:

–how hard it must that they can’t share their truth.

And it finally hits home how much we’re the same

that we couldn’t see it, perhaps more the shame.

© Ginny Brannan 2023