*Adapted
from: Charles C. Finn, Please Hear What I'm Not Saying
Don't be fooled by me.
Don't be fooled by the face I wear
for I wear a mask, a thousand masks.
Masks that I'm afraid to take off,
and none of them is really me.
for I wear a mask, a thousand masks.
Masks that I'm afraid to take off,
and none of them is really me.
that all is of sunshine, smiles and rainbows,
a nonchalant yet sophisticated facade,
to help me pretend and shield me from reality,
from the glaces and the judgments,
I really cannot handle on my own.
It's the only thing that will assure me,
of what I can't assure myself,
that I'm really worth something.
But the masks hides it all, and it's not said.
I don't dare to, I'm afraid to.
I'm afraid of what people will think of me,
that they will laugh, and the laughter will kill me.
I'm afraid deep down I'm nothing,
and without the facade of assurance,
it's just a trembling child within.
So begins the glittering but empty parade of masks,
as I idly chatter to you about the suave tones of surface talks.
I tell you everything is really nothing,
and nothing of what's everything,
of what's crying within me.
Remove my mask,
let me escape from my shadow world of panic.
Release me from my own self-build prison,
from the barriers I so painstakingly erected.
But beware, the nearer you approach, the blinder I strike back.
I guess my pretense is just all too real,
No one has to know of the pain that I feel.
The real me inside, where no one can see,
I can fool everyone else,
why can't I fool me?
Pretending is an art that is almost second nature to me,
so don't be fooled by what I am saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm not saying,
what I'd like to be able to say.
Don't be fooled by this foolish masked fool.
