The Masks We Wear
By Genevy Machuca
Take a second look to your left…
Now look to your right…
One of your peers or even the stranger right beside you can be one of the greatest liars out there
Even if you think you know them you don't realize what's beneath the mask they wear…
Depression, Anxiety, Stress, all the things messing with one’s mind,
causing one to lie…
Maybe even lie to themself
Saying their fine when in reality they're anything but fine
Not being prudent for yourself because you're on your last straw!
Though you're not suicidal, you just don't want to try, but sometimes you wonder what it’d be like to die
The constant pain in the chest and leg shaking that only you can understand!
Can't be the pain from today, not even the pain from yesterday, but maybe the pain from long ago
With that calm in your face that makes it seem like everything's okay but deep down you're slowly drifting, breaking apart like shattered glass…
Not knowing the difference between being happy and acting happy
Shutting everything out
Forgetting how to even crack open a smile
being trapped in your own thoughts
living a lie just laying there wanting to say goodbye
Piece by piece losing yourself and beginning to hide
Hiding behind your own pain
Hiding behind the label that's “not normal”
Hiding the copious tears that want to rush down your cheek and fall onto your lap
Now here we sit…
in 2021, 2022, and so on
wearing not one but two masks
Today the mask doesn't cover insecurities or inner feelings where we pretend to be okay
instead it covers up a cough,
it covers up a sneeze,
it covers up what used to be a grin...
Now with the constant reminder to carry a mask throughout any public area
And when I forget, I am asked
“Oh excuse me miss, do you have a mask ?”
Yes, I have two
But they don’t see the mask I wear
Image courtesy of Genevy Machuca.
Genevy Machuca is a junior student at Southwest Career & Technical Academy of Las Vegas. Her passions include writing, speaking, and drawing/photography. Her poem, The Masks We Wear, won second place in the 2021 Spark! Youth Poetry Writing & Recitation Competition at the Las Vegas Book Festival.