MASK

I hope that you will understand:

I have no need to win her heart-

I just have years of need to know,

Did she understand the part

Of me she saw so many years ago,

One April night, when time stood still?

She'd looked into an emptiness

That only you have filled…

Embarrassed by old memories,

I search for shreds of dignity,

Some token that says she had seen

And recognised that it had been

An involuntary cry, whose cause

Was some unspoken sense of loss,

A momentary glimpse at pain

Behind a mask that would not slip again…

And maybe, when you hear this song

Someday, you’ll come to understand

This was no waywardness along

My road, no loss of self-command:

Just purging of a fear to know

What image I’d find in that cask:

I want you to know this, my love,

To you, I’ve never worn a mask:

You know you are, have always been,

Will always be my woman, first and last…