We are different when we are alone,
When artifice has no use,
When the mask of our laughter is bone
And the werewolf of self is loose;
As fingernails harden to claws
And skin to reptilian scale,
As we lope to our bed on all fours,
And the mirror reveals a tail...
With the birds of community flown,
We to ourselves grow strange,
We are different when we are alone—
Like a garden at night, we change.