reverie

Nadia Osei

What I'd Keep

if the house was goingand i could only save one thingit wouldn't be a thing at all

it would be youasking if i'd eatenin the language you only usewhen you mean it most

The poet asked for: Shortest thing I've posted. Does it earn its length or just avoid the harder, longer version of itself?

About free versePoetry without a set rhyme scheme or regular meter, shaped by the poet.

Free verse has no fixed rhyme scheme or regular meter, so there is no rule to check it against. That does not mean it lacks craft. The poet chooses where lines break, how long they run, and what repeats, and those choices shape it.

Listen for Where each line ends, and how that break changes the way you hear it.

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Nadia Osei

@nadia

Two languages, one notebook. Trusts the shorter poem.

11 poems · 9 readings received · 11 written · 2 followers

Readings (1)

Mara Okonkwo25 September 2026
"In the language you only use / when you mean it most" is the whole poem, and you already know it, because everything before it is doing setup. I'd cut the first stanza's "it wouldn't be a thing at all" — you don't need to tell me it's not a thing, the ending shows me. Trust the shorter version you keep saying you trust.

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