THE KNOWN STRANGER......

A little girl gazing in innocent surprise,
at the tiny little wonders called butterflies;
Sitting on the balcony with gay abondon,
her balloons dissappearing into the curtains of the sun.

Talking to her dolls, crying in their pain
taking off her raincoat and dancing in the rain;
Waiting at her window for an angel with a wand,
thirsting for stories with ghosts of another land.

A secret dairy that guarded her sweet-16 wishes,
gazing for hours at her would-be curly tresses;
A best friend who breathed only when she did,
pain pinched only when cream dripped through the lid........

Now cosy in her private little shallop,
and then tossed around among unexpected waves;
Confused with so many masks swarming around;
Hallucinating with new emotions now in her abound......

So softly she had treaded- I was surprised I heard her,
Like faraway summer was her laughter,
Like a drowning ripple was her smile,
tender were her eyes, and her colourless touch fragile.

Into my moments of solitude she peeped,
like a known stranger forgotten in the crowd;
In her eyes I could read lines of a nostalgic prose,
in her hand she held many a long-pressed rose.

I knew she was me,
she knew I d forgotten her,
Yet I could still feel on my cheeks her tears,
And then I found my smile on her face,
Laughing at me and all my fears.....