A stranger's eyes look back at…

A stranger's eyes look back at me sometimes,
Not mine, yet oddly familiar.
A tilt of the head, a certain sigh,
These small things feel new, yet deeply known.
The laughter comes, but the tone is strange,
A higher pitch, or a deeper rumble.
My thoughts, they swirl, a different tide,
Carrying echoes of places unseen.
The old paths I walked, they seem to fade,
Replaced by roads less trodden, steeper.
The fears I held, they shrink and shift,
While new anxieties begin to bloom.
The dreams I chased, they morph and change,
Into something I didn't quite expect.
I reach for a hand, and it's not my own,
Though the gesture feels perfectly right.
The words I speak, they form and flow,
With a cadence I've never heard before.
I taste new flavors, feel different textures,
As if my senses have been rewired.
Am I a tapestry, slowly unraveling,
Or a seed that's finally breaking ground?
This becoming, it’s a quiet unfurling,
A subtle, persistent, beautiful change.
I watch myself, with a curious heart,
Wondering who this new self will be.