Author: Kentucky Woman
Title: The Stranger
Type of Work: poem
Source: CMv1 #19

© Copyright 2002 Pamela Montgomery

Who is the stranger looking at me? Why is she looking - what does she see?
She smiles at others but at me she will only stare. Why is she looking - why do I care?
Her smile is so quick to soothe another’s trouble heart. Why is she looking - are we so far apart?
She looks so much like me, which troubles me so. Why is she looking - I really don’t know.
I once knew her as a carefree little girl, with blonde hair so straight - not even one curl.
I remember her teens she was a troubled young lass. Now she’s a stranger looking at me through glass.
There was a time when I thought she had made it so far, that she could almost reach each shining star.
She reached and she reached and selected just two. The first was named Scott and the second Matthew.
Now her stars are all grown with dreams of their own. Now she looks in the mirror at a face no longer known.
"Who are you", I ask with a broken hearted stare. "What have you seen that has left you so bare"?
"I have seen you so happy and I have seen you so sad. You can’t blame your failures on the death of your Dad".
I looked at her longer and then I understood - these things she was saying were for my own good.
She looks so familiar - now I understand! She’s looking at me through the mirror in my hand.
No longer a stranger - we are the same you see. We are each other’s spirit - my stranger and me.