The Masks That We Bear Poem by Gert Strydom

The masks that we bear
hide our deepest pain,
which disappears behind the smiles
that we give the whole day

Expressions are crafted
for the world outside
and our faces mirror,
only what we want other people to see
and in our hearts
demons and angels are doing their thing.

From somewhere we lost the ability
to be just ordinary people
and everybody have become actors,
for whom the wide world is the stage.

Only the creator sees our deepest hearts
and bears in all our suffering
and on we daily play,
the game of ostensibility
for everyone else.