The Mask Can Fall Now

The mirror shows a face you have carefully arranged, a performance of okayness rehearsed until the muscles ache. You practice the casual lie, the smooth excuse, the slight smile that says nothing is wrong.

But the light does not need your mask to see you. It sees the collapse behind the eyes, the tremor in the hands you are trying to hide.

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, no hidden thing that will not be brought out into the open. The light is not waiting to expose you as a fraud — it is waiting to reveal that you were never alone in the dark.

You do not have to hold the performance together for one more hour. The mask can fall.

The truth is already known, and it loves what is behind it.