behind the Cheshire smile,
the starlit eyes
that he is vile.
The colorful guise
he cloaks himself in
doesn't ever wear thin.

No one sees him
as he is
without the cream
and fizz
without the round, plump cherry
sitting on the top
in his house of cards
soda shop.

No one sees him
as I
when he takes off
his face at night
throwing it in his bedroom bureau.
He'll die everyone's hero.