Daily writing prompt

What’s the first impression you want to give people?

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The Mask of Indifference
(An INFJ’s Soliloquy)

I craft my mask with patient hands,
A shield of calm in shifting sands.
Its face is smooth, its gaze serene,
A fortress built to hold the unseen.

Behind it, storms rage wild and high,
Yet all you see is a placid sky.
No cracks betray the thoughts I weave,
No hint of wounds I won’t un-sleeve.

I wear it well, this practiced guise,
A silent guard to prying eyes.
For who can handle what’s inside?
The depths I swim, the truths I hide?

It spares me pain, it dulls the sting,
Of careless words that barbs might bring.
A neutral tone, a measured laugh,
Can split the weight of shadows in half.

But sometimes, oh, how I ache to breathe,
To rip this mask and just believe
That someone sees and doesn’t flee,
That someone might still understand me.

Yet every time I test the air,
The sting returns; it isn’t fair.
So on it goes, my shield, my friend,
A barrier till bitter end.

And though it costs a piece of me,
I’ll wear it with a dignity,
For better to hide and stay intact,
Than shatter from a heart attack.

Still, in the mirror late at night,
I long to shed this fight-or-flight.
To touch the world without pretense,
But masks, I fear, make better sense.

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