Nancy Ann Creed

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/mask-in-theater-explained-77455 The Curtain's Cost I am utterly exhausted by this relentless play, The heavy curtain of performance drawn too long. I cannot hold the hollow smile another day, To mask the deep, the aching emptiness that's wrong. The burden of a self that isn't mine to wear, To fit the mold you fashioned, cruel and tight, An agonizing stretch away from who I care To be—my own identity, eclipsed by your light. You see a project, a design that must be met, But tell me, why must the authentic me be cast aside? I am finished fabricating reasons I have set, For every thought and every reaction I can't hide. I've justified my nature to a vacant crowd, To people who, I now accept, simply don't care. The painful truth: my hope was spoken out loud, A unilateral effort lost on thin, cold air. I poured my heart to mend what broke between, But found no shared commitment, no reciprocal tide, A solitary s...

  Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com Acceptance is the Key The weight of a thousand eyes presses down, A silent, ceaseless judgment that I drown Within. I worry too much, an endless loop Of anxious thoughts, a psychological stoop About how others see me—the fleeting glance, The subtle shift, the judgment they advance. Each interaction is a stage, a test, Where my own self-worth is put to the best Or worst assessment by an external gauge. I turn each minor slip into a mental cage. I worry too much, an unrelenting fear, About whether they like me, holding me dear, Or casting me aside with cold indifference. The need for approval is a fierce presence, A hunger I can never seem to appease, Searching for acceptance on every breeze. I worry too much, the constant, weary drain, About what others think, the imagined stain They see upon my character or my name. This scrutiny I project is a cruel game, Where I am both the player and the prize, Obsessed with the mirrors in other peop...