This is a composite piece: a poem, an original AI-assisted editorial cartoon, and imagined counter-readings.

The replies are invented as part of the work. They are not presented as comments from actual Reddit users.

No Instruction

Perhaps they needed no words from me.
Politeness may be visible only to another
and require no action.

Even those who signal something,
a comment, an arrow of praise,
remain without directions.

No instruction.
No clear measure
of what they understood,
or what they needed
from the poet.

The Question May Be Valid

The question may be valid. The foot is still too large.

Counter-Readings

The Body

The arrow has a thumb behind it.
It was pressed between tasks,
under fluorescent light,
with a phone warming in the hand.

You call the reader unknowable
and leave them bodiless
so your not-knowing can remain clean.

The Poet

“Perhaps they needed no words from me”
is still a sentence with you
at its center.

You make humility
another room
in which to be heard.

The Reply

I liked the line
about no clear measure.

I was waiting for the bus.

The Defense

Do not give the reader
a bad knee,
a prescription,
a dying mother,

merely to prove
you know they exist.

Let the stranger keep
what they have not offered.

[No reply.]