The Mask

Always a mask

Held in the slim hand, whitely,

Always she had a mask before her face -

Smiling and spritely,

The mask.

For years and years I wondered

But dared not ask.

And then-

I blundered,

I looked behind,

Behind the mask,

To find

Nothing -

She had no face.

She had become

Merely a hand

Holding a mask

With grace.

- The Mask by Helen Joseph, Saturday Review

August 13, 1932

Is there anything behind your mask?

Are you a person of substance?

Are you real?

anything but typical