I practiced the word in the car.I practiced it in the mirror.By the time I got to youI only had the plain one left:
stay.
Not the fireworks version.Not the version with the violins.Just the one wordthat was ever actually true.
stay.stay.I said it twicein case the first one sounded like a question.
The poet asked for: Does the repeated line earn the second use, or is it just the first one, twice?
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Readings so far (1)
Nadia Osei25 September 2026
"In case the first one sounded like a question" is the best last line I've read on here in a while — it reframes everything before it without changing a word of it. I don't have a critique. I have a request: write the poem where he answers.