Paul Lawrence Dunbar

[funkpoet]

Have you ever smiled because you didn't feel confrontation was the way to go? Maybe you were outnumbered. Maybe you were trying to keep a job that you hate, but felt you needed to eat. Maybe the person you were smiling at held your grade, or a badge. Maybe you were hoping to get laid and no one has smiled back at you in months. Maybe you were Black or another minority, Jewish, gay, or female in America.


We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask.