I felt his stone cold gaze travel through me, tearing my body apart
His eyes were daggers to my fragile skin,
Passing through me,
To the very core of my being.

He saw the hope of change I hid in the shadowed corner of my desire,
The cold, hard terrain I walked to overcome the heartache I carried with me.
He saw me, bare from my disguise of an emotionless face,
He saw me free from the judgments that destroy me.
He saw me as I am.

The corners of his mouth turned upward
Forming the world’s most perfectly crooked smile.
He didn’t notice me shiver.

And though this moment was too soon lost in the endless sea of time
As he passed me in the hallway,
It was not to be forgotten.

For even though the girl who looks at me in the mirror
Has the same homely face, the same limp hair, and the same brown eyes,
I can see the blush in her cheeks, the bounce to her hair, and the hazel in her eyes

I can feel the newly lit candle burning my soul.
This fire allowing me to feel, allowing me to live.
The flame lit by a single smile, a single glance my way.

And though today I put on the same clothes and the same shoes,
I wear a different person.