The Stranger I Loved Poem by ashok jadhav

I loved you once, or thought I did,
the you who laughed without fear,
whose eyes held warmth like summer light,
whose voice was a place I could rest.
But time and choices have worn you into someone else,
a shadow shaped like your name,
moving through the world
without the heart I once knew.
I reach for you in memory,
for the hands that no longer fit mine,
the smile that has turned foreign,
the tenderness I can no longer touch.
Grief is not for the leaving,
but for the living you have become—
someone I cannot recognize,
someone I must mourn while still beside.