Familiar Stranger | Teen Ink

Familiar Stranger

November 6, 2009
By ERGrey SILVER, College Station, Texas
ERGrey SILVER, College Station, Texas
9 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"If it is once again one against forty-eight, then I'm very sorry for the forty-eight."- Margaret Thatcher
"Red meat isn't bad for you, fuzzy green meat is."
"Writers are the only adults who get to work in their pajamas and play with imaginary friends


Familiar stranger
Staring at me from the glass
Looking just like me but I don’t know her

She has my eyes
She has my face
She has the same expression as me
But I don’t recognize her

Familiar stranger
In the looking glass
Reflection or a different picture

She looks just like me
She’s a mirror image
Her eyes smile just like mine
But I don’t recognize her

Familiar stranger
Peeking up at me
Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m looking in a mirror anymore

Her face is mine
Her eyes are mine
The way she smiles is just like me
But I don’t recognize her

Familiar stranger
Staring back at me
I put my hand up and she copies

Her hand moves like mine
Her hand reaches out as I do
Her hand touches mine
But I don’t recognize her

Familiar stranger
In a room just like mine
Are there parallel worlds or is this girl really me?

I don’t recognize myself
I’ve become someone else
How do I go back to who I was?
Do I really want to?

Familiar stranger
Questions in her eyes
She tries to speak
But her words are mine

Familiar stranger
A person I see every day
Always unsure if it’s really me

Uncertainty and doubt
Flood my head
Every time I see her face
My face

Familiar stranger
A person I don’t recognize
Why do I not recognize myself?

Who have I become?
Who am I now?
Who is this person who stares at me in the mirror?

Have I changed that much?
Am I really that different?
Why didn’t I realize the changes before now?

Familiar stranger
My face, my eyes
My voice, my hand
My tears

The author's comments:
This poem was inspired by a book I had read. In the book, the main character looks in a mirror and doesn't recognize herself at all. So I took those feelings and expressed them in poetry form.

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This article has 1 comment.


nolava said...
on Nov. 26 2009 at 12:28 pm
Again ERGrey uses those short lines and repetition to share her mysterious queries. I believe she expresses very clearly a teen's emotional maturing, bewildered by the changes in herself as she does indeed change and grow. Good final line.