Stranger In The Mirror

When I look at myself,
In the mirror on the wall,
My image always seems to ask me ...
"Who was the one I saw last fall,
And who is this person I'm seeing now?"

Maybe it's just an optical illusion,
Or maybe my image has gone insane,
For how can someone change so much,
It's something that is at best arcane.

But, on taking a closer look I notice,
That my image has hit the nail on it's head,
For nowhere do I see any hint of a smile,
And even the glimmer in my eyes is now dead.

My face looks like a leaf in autumn,
With all the mirth & laughter lost somewhere,
I look a pale shadow of my former self,
Wondering what went wrong & where.

And as I look at myself in the mirror,
A question rankles me in my mind,
A question for which I don't have an answer:
"Who is this Stranger in the Mirror?"