often in life
i take people
at face value
which leads
more often than not
to seeing how
the mask slips
unwittingly
showing exactly
who they are
beneath the constantly
fluctuating falsehood

the problem
is with me
i have accepted
the beast of flaws
that define me
so why wouldn’t
everyone else
feel comfortable enough
in their own skin
to be themselves

it is the ones
that keep it
all together longest
that lull me into
a sense of false camaraderie
so the truth
of what they are
hurts more

but i don’t
want to be jaded
against empirical evidence
to the contrary
so i fall for it
time and time again
always wondering how
i didn’t see
the cracks in the
too perfect facade
but it seems
that this wound
necer grows a callus
despite the callous
disregard shown
by monsters parading
in human masks