My Favorite Stranger

A random Stranger saw me smiling in a cafe and took a picture of me

A nice one at that

For weeks, that Stranger would follow me home at night 

Sometimes grabbing at my hand

One day, that Stranger said they loved me, kissed me.

…I kissed them back

They weren’t always a stranger though

Not to me.

One day that Stranger told me,

I wasn’t enough

I wasn’t enough,

They told me

He didn’t,

I knew

…

I prefer to forget,

I prefer to erase—overwrite—their name.

With a tear, I let them become another innocent passerby:

Someone I can’t hold accountable

Someone I can’t hold in my mind

Someone I can’t hold.

I’m forced to remember,

My Favorite, stranger—

Stranger? My favorite—

Someone I can’t love.

Someone I can’t hate.

Someone—

No one