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.