I read your thoughts in borrowed language You said “we’re all a little staged” Then smiled like that explained the damage We never dared to say by name You said the loud ones are just frightened And I laughed like I was safe But every joke I ever offered Was just a fear I couldn’t face And oh We’re more than what we show in daylight But less than who we hope to be Just actors learning fragile silence In some private tragedy You told me people rarely mean it When they say they’re doing fine They leak themselves in tiny patterns Like truth dissolving over time And I thought of all my disappearing All the roles I learn by heart How even love becomes a costume When you don’t know where to start And oh We wear our masks in quiet lighting Like that makes them less than real But underneath the careful posing Is everything we never feel You said the calm ones hold the power Not the ones who need to win So I learned how to be quieter Like that might let someone in But power never felt like freedom And knowing never made it clear Just that every human answer Still begins and ends in fear And oh If everyone is just pretending Then I don’t know what is true But I still wait in half-belief For something honest breaking through
