If you want to get to know me

Text:

© Shamika
Part of a longer poem - Superficial Friendships

If you want to get to know me, see beyond the way I look
I'm a novel that you can't not put down, I'm not a picture book
Don't fall in love with avatars and made-up user names
Those are just disguises filled with artificial claims
If you want to get to know me, then maybe play my songs
read my poems, go on forums where I like to bang my gongs
Take a note of what I listen to, the games I like to play
Take the links I recommend and check my status every day
If you want to get to know me, I suggest you hang around
and watch as I discard the veils so thick and tightly wound
My hope chest will not open, I never give the key
to any random passer by who takes a shine to me

No images can capture the spirit that is me
Beneath the airbrush tweaking are the lines no-one can see
The lines I like to cover on my superficial face
are not the lines I'll cherish in my final resting place
So before you get to know me, then get to know yourself
you may find deep inside there is a vast and untapped wealth
Love has many different forms and ways to be expressed
but love is always naked no matter how it's dressed