The gradual discovery 

of who You truly are
is the supreme romance--

What You are beneath the molded crust
of artificial misrepresentations may
lie inert for decades. 

One day pops 
like a jack-in-the-box, 

there You are--- 
face to face with a stranger,
unrecognizable, 

until
it dawns on you that the original 
is the real, 

and that 
you have unwittingly degraded 
into a faded simulation

of the authentic You.