Masks, Oil 24x12

My husband and I wen't to New Orleans, last month, and one of the pictures that I took was a wall full of masks. I thought that it would be a suitable painting since we had a visitation to go to tonight. So many of the kids tried to keep their stoic faces on, but all failed.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!