I used to measure the day by what it took from me.Now I measure it by what I let it keep.
Is that living, or just better accounting?I don't know yet. I only knowthe first way ran out, the way a houseruns out of rooms nobody airs.
So I open one. That's all today was.One window. One room. I called it enoughbecause the alternative was calling it nothing,and I am done doing that math.
The poet asked for: The last two lines feel like an ending twice — do I need both, or does the poem land once and I'm padding it?
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Juniper Cole25 September 2026
"A house that runs out of rooms nobody airs" — that's the line I'm still thinking about. Everything after it is good but a little more told than shown compared to that one image. I'd want one more room in this house before the poem ends, something as specific as that first one.