MASK - Blogtober 2020

Mask

"How are you doing?" they ask in passing.

"You know me: I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

Yet, all around me, my world is crashing.

Demons all about me, reaching, grasping

Marriage looks so good to the outsiders

Your great kids - they have it all together

Stale love life full of cobwebs and spiders

My "leather" is made of weakest pleather

"But when you know that you've got a real friend"

All the others are easier to bear

Turns out Jackson Browne was right in the end

One who knows my soul's deep depths - Oh, so rare!

     Utter transparency: that is the task

     But, all day long we choose to wear the mask

--Shenandoah Lynd

(a Shakespearean sonnet)