an outpouring

This, a heart-cry, to those who wear their happiness like a mask.

Please, oh opera phantom, do not shrink back as I rip off the mask.

Do not keep hiding, reveal yourself to the world of common sufferers.

Revel in the light that pours over your unbarred face.

Promise me one thing: that you won't run from my face unmasked.

And I will give everything of myself to do the same for you.

You are afraid, you are ashamed, you are me and I am you.

We are two, we are one, and one must make the first move.

Discontinue this stalemate, but we are both afraid, so go

Tonight we must stay awake, or else sleep for all time behind our masks.

Have I ever told you that it was your mask that drew me to you?

Have I ever told you that it is this attraction that I despise.

Let me love the real you, and I will settle for being hated as myself.

My trembling fingers clasp the edges of a mask, but who's?

Yours of mine, I do not know, so I fear to pull away.

Pull with me, and my fears - not gone - are calmed.