When all the masks dissolve
(as well they must, against the potency
of our being)
We’ll see each other, and we’ll know
that nothing we have fretted over
ever mattered at all

The person each of us has always been,
the one we’ve always known,
turns out to never have been sullied
by failures or by fears

That deeply lovable, delightful being
we each so valiantly
have striven to defend
is who, now that the mask is down,
appears,
never faded, never fallen,
never broken, never marred by years,
ever shining, radiant and clear.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 3, 2015