Society taught me

I can be what I want to be

Unless I say too much

Be a lady and act as such

Keep my head down and appease

Everyone else and learn to please

But behind the filter, beyond the mask

Lies a woman never afraid to ask

Questions that are most essential

Bursting with overwhelming potential

While inside she’s screaming out loud

“If only I made myself proud.”

Well-mannered fronts give way

To untamed fire, shining bright as day

Dulled by the filter of her every day life

She balances on the edge of a knife

Between what’s real and what’s fake

Masking herself for other people’s sake

Everyday she makes a choice

On whether she’s going to quiet her voice

Or remove all pretense and disguise

Taking away a filter of enormous size

Because underneath the guise of politeness

There’s a certain brightness

To her personality and outer glow

The glow that she’s afraid to show