How to be a stranger

How to be a stranger

If you're the girl wearing a cashmere jumper
because it feels so soft
and cosy against your skin
when everyone else is dressed
for a night on the town
then you might be doing it right.

If everyone around you is having
celebratory drinks while you slug
from a bottle of water,
wanting to keep a clear head
and clearer skin.

If everyone else is enjoying the music,
dancing along,
and you're frantically scribbling into
a note book,
allowing the beats to be your backdrop,
the blank canvas onto which
you splatter your thoughts.

If your world within
is sometimes more colourful than
the one outside,
you feel its okay to retreat.

Then who's to say what's strange,
everyone finds their own normal,
their own baseline,
and perhaps I'm not really strange here
just a stranger.

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