Returning

A poem about taking off the mask

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This poem is about that moment when you finally take off the masks other people have placed on you. And you stop asking for permission to just live.

As women, we often get stuck in these roles, right? Daughter, mother, sister, lover. And it can feel like we’re suffocating under all of it. You lose yourself.

So in this poem, I wanted to examine that feeling of taking the mask off. When she looks into the mirror and strips away those labels, there’s something real there. Something that was always there. She’s not becoming someone new. She’s just coming back to who she was before society told her who she was.

It’s not angry. It’s quieter than that. Just clear and calm.

The mask, the mirror, the breath—they’re about taking back your voice. Your power. And I think the bravest act is just remembering who you were all along and choosing to live that truth.

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Returning

one morning  
she unfastened the mask  
they had pinned to her face—  

and for the first time  
she didn’t ask permission  
to breathe.  

she stood in the mirror  
not as a shadow or a daughter,  
not as a mother or a lover,  
not as a sacrifice—  

only herself:  
raw,  
undeniable,  
bright  
with her own fire.  

not becoming someone new,  
but returning  
to the rhythm  
of her own heart.

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