Stranger

Stranger

I caught a glimpse of me today Or thought I did But that can’t be me, the empty professional smile The eyes dull ,lifeless, unbeguiled Unkempt hair, no purpose in her stance Looking again, backwards, discreetly but still I can’t quite decide She looks like someone half remembered that perhaps I used to know Whom I passed on the stairs somewhere Or glanced at, inwardly mocking her ill fortune, on a train or bus or In the street, somewhere anonymous Her non response, unseeing, unimportant A depiction of some other unrecognisable humanity Someone disengaged from life or love Inactively dispossessed of energy or faith It makes me smile to think I imagined her me That this two dimensional apparition bore Any semblance of what I think I nowadays seem to be But those eyes, that vacant downturned smile Speak directly to something inside And I shudder, wondering what premonition brings her here To taunt me, tease me make me fear I look back again, but she just won’t disappear.