Don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear. I wear a mask. I wear a thousand masks - masks that I am afraid to take off; and none of them are me.

Pretending is an art that is second nature to me, but don't be fooled, I give the impression that I am secure, that all is sunny and unruffled within me as well as without; that confidence is my name and coolness is my game, that the water is calm and I am in command; that I need no one. But don't believe me, please. My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is my mask, my ever varying and ever concealing mask.

Beneath lays no smugness, no complacence. Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, in aloneness. But I hide that. I don't want anyone to know it. I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear being exposed. That is why I frantically create a mask to hide behind, a nonchalant, sophisticated facade to help me pretend, to help shield me from the glance that knows. But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only salvation, and I know it. That is, if it's followed by acceptance; if it is followed by love.

It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself, from my own self-built prison walls, from the barriers I so pain stakingly erect. It's the only thing that will assure me of what I can't assure myself, that I am really worth something. Who am I, you may wonder? I am someone you know very well. I am every man you meet and I am every woman you meet.

By Charles C. Finn (From the poem, Please Hear What I'm Not Saying)

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