A Familiar Stranger
by Vidhi Chandel, India. Third place in the Writory International Poetry Contest, March 2026, scored 93 out of 100.
A Familiar Stranger I have met him closely But now, I don't remember knowing him. The one I thought I knew, seems to be an illusion now. Was he always this way, And I failed to recognize? Or he turned into someone, I never wanted to meet? The one I knew would bring in a drought, If I shed a single tear. Now he see me drowning in the flood of my own tears. The one I knew would walk a 1000 miles for me even with a sprained foot, Now he wouldn't even stand by me for a second. The one I knew would grow gardens for me even without seeds. Now he would let the seeds blow off even with the lightest wind Maybe the one I knew was never real. Maybe it was all my delusion. Maybe the love in my eyes made him look that way. Maybe the version of him I saw was a myth. Maybe he wasn't the one I was supposed to meet. Maybe he's just a lesson I still deny to learn. And maybe all these maybe are not just maybe, but the truths I keep escaping.
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