I opened the box that I shouldn’t have opened
And photos of you fell into my hand
But I didn’t recognise the girl next to you
The one smiling and in love. I didn’t know her at all.
There were letters of love, songs of melancholy
Rings. There were two rings. 
One was meant to be a wedding band. But it has no bride.
Two books dedicated to the girl in the photos.
A book for each year.

And still the girl in the box continues to smile.
Still you continued to smile as you held her.
All the love, the happiness, the memories.
Lay dormant in that box.
Items I had forgotten existed. Songs I pretended I never
knew.
Words that you said that I never heard.
And a love that died so long ago.

But I don’t remember. I don’t know that girl.
I don’t know where the photo was taken.
When the words of love where spoken.
I don’t remember the nights under the stars.
The nights in your arms.
The days at your side.
I don’t remember, but I saw it all there in the box.

How can I know that I loved you once, but not remember at
all?
I can I still feel love for you, when it’s a stranger in
that box.
Why do I miss someone who ceased to exist,
A couple that ceased to exist.
How can I miss them…
When for months they lay dormant in a box. 

They have no dreams anymore. Not together.
They don’t even speak. One hears a song and remembers,
But can not tell a soul.
There’s no one who knows her inside out anymore.
And she doesn’t know herself, she can’t recognise the
past.

For she is me. And I am her.
But I have never before felt myself to be a stranger.