I Hide My Heart

When someone asks to borrow something,
I close my eyes and give away
my ears, but never
my heart.

It's not that I don't want to give it.
It's just that I truly don't know
how this business of giving hearts
happens,
or how it doesn't.

I laugh with myself, alone,
and keep on laughing,
hidden from the entire world.

To laugh the truest laugh,
I have to be alone,
I have to be with myself.

No one knows
how I feel.
No one even bothers
to ask me that!

Looking at myself,
I almost always think
I'm fooling
all of them.

They see only
my mask—
I keep my face
hidden from them all.

If they stayed with me
until deep night,
when the whole world
falls asleep,
perhaps then
from among the secret words
I keep hidden in my heart,
I'd let them choose
what they want to know.

But when I wake
at two in the morning,
I never find
any of them
beside me.

And this is how
I've come to understand
why I still
keep my heart hidden.
There's only one reason—
no one gives a damn
about this heart!