That Look

I’ll take my mask off so you can see my face. But don’t look that look, that catches in my need Drop your books; let us even up our space Now follow me unmasked where I shall lead Let me show you things I need you to see. Open your eyes, then slowly clear your mind. Let me relate what you have done to me. I know your sort and you, you know my kind. That lonely girl, that’s me when once a child See her crying, face against the wall. No, don’t touch, she feels not reconciled Just leave her where she lay, curled in a ball. Watch that woman; that’s me when I have grown. I am laughing; I assumed my life was well. Drank from glasses that I might never own outside heaven but inside a bubbling hell. See the mirror; reflecting two of me. Look quickly for the faces don’t belong How the image of the child’s was not to be. The woman once so right, the child so wrong. See the heart that has broken on the floor That was mine, now smashed and left to bleed. I wanted to be seen and nothing more Here comes the look, that catches in my need. You may leave, your conscience must be clear I won’t walk you back; I’m staying in this place I will never understand what happened here I’ll stay masked so you’ll never see my face Please let me be and leave me in my pain The child pesters me; I cannot answer why? She wonders why it happened yet again the look that caught our need and made me cry.