The Stranger

• Scarlett Ruddy, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2022

“I love you…” persuaded the stranger,
Unlovingly,
Almost as if he was forced to say it,
“I love you too.” ineptly lied the young girl gazing into her cell phone,
The cell phone which her mother worked hard to provide her with,
“Goodbye.” the stranger quickly ended,
Not even bothered to make his eagerness to leave not so obvious,
The young girl felt perpetual betrayal,
Yet she hardly knew the man who betrayed her so mercilessly,
Or the man that made her violently sob at night,
Or the man that never treated her right,
Or the man that made her feel disgusted with herself,
Because there was nothing more in the world she desired than to get to know the man who abandoned her,
The stranger,
Her father.