Hiding What You Are Poem by gershon hepner

Hiding what you are prevents
the people who don’t know you from
attempting to make hostile dents
in you, as might a Peeping Tom
who sees you as you really are,
aware of every weird defect,
for nobody inflicts a scar
on people whom they can’t detect.

Inspired by a line from “Me and Orson Welles, ” reviewed by A.O. Scott in the NYT, November 25,2009. Orson Welles, played by Christian McKay, tells Richard Samuels, played by Zac Ephron, whom he calls Junior and fires after the successful first night of a production of “Julius Caesar” in which Zac Ephron plays the very minor role of Lucius but manages to make love with Clare Danes, who plays the role of Sonja Jones, who is looking at “Gone With the Wind” for David O. Selznivk, that he should hide his personality, because nobody makes enemies of people they don’t now. By the end of the movie you are not quite sure who Orson Welles, Richard Samuels or Clare Danes really are but you have a feeling that while all of them will soon be gone with the wind, none of them have inflicted wounds on one another.

12/2/09