"We Wear the Mask" - Rev. G. H. Caldwell

African American poetry has relevance beyond the African American experience. "America First"
suggests isolation, and isolation suggests masks, and then I think of, "We Wear the Mask", by
Paul Laurence Dunbar. What does the USA have to hide as we isolate ourselves from the rest
of the world?

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.

        We wear the mask!

Gil Caldwell