Who is this woman

staring back at me?

Lost and alone, 

      yet connected

to a being

Battered and bruised

       from a chance

she once took

To love a stranger

       from a friend

she mistook

She is strong

but broken –

Misplaced in a token,

        of selfish words

once softly spoken

She will stand,

but

with clenched fist hands

Never trusting the man,

Who sold her a plan

That made her –

     a shell of a woman