The Real Us

We never really get to see the 'real us'

the 'real us' that other people see

unless of course that's not really the 'real us'.

The 'real us' may be trapped deep inside

we may be deliberately hiding the 'real us'

behind a mask

or behind our best defenses

for some reason which is not best known to us.

We might not think we like the 'real us'

and so mask it with a different someone

maybe a someone we think we'd like to be

a someone we'd prefer to be over the someone we are 

and so ensues a battle 

a battle between the 'real us' inside

and the pretend us outside

we become two people 

the person we are

and the person we think we should be

when all we really want

is the outside us

to be the same

as the inside us

...don't we?