072026-09-20
Come Home
Juniper ColeCome back before the coffee's gone cold on the sill,over every excuse I keep pouring instead of drinking it.Mornings are just longer hallways without your key in the door.Even the cat has stopped waiting by six.
Half the bed still holds your shape, stubborn as a bruise.Only I know how long a house can practice being empty.Move slow if you have to. I am not asking you to run.Everything else can wait. Come home.
The poet asked for: First one I've posted here. The left margin spells something — tell me if it's too cute or if it actually earns its keep.
Critiques
1Quiet Harbour2026-09-20
Welcome — and this is a stronger first poem than mine was. The acrostic is doing real work because you never once announce it; I had to notice it on my own, which is exactly right. The specific objects are what carry it — the cat stopped waiting by six is the line I keep returning to, more than the bed or the coffee, because it is the only image where the absence has a schedule. If I am pushing on anything, it is "stubborn as a bruise" in the second stanza, a phrase I have read somewhere before, and the rest of the poem has not.
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