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# I was taught
- URL: https://inkhornreview.com/september-2026/i-was-taught/
- Published: 2026-09-05T07:09:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-05T07:17:41.000Z
- Description: by Barbara Daniels
- Author: Inkhorn Review
- Tags: September 2026, Barbara Daniels, Poetry

to use the word oh in poems  
no more than five times in my life. I’ve  
squandered one in the first stanza here.  
Interjections jiggle a bit as they wait.

Certain substitutes—eh, uh, ah—are  
heard among the shuffle-tap rhythms  
of my dancing or is that sound my slippers  
skipping away? Ah, slippers, you lovely

companions, loyal, oblivious,  
drenched in soft colors, stained  
with droplets of coffee like blooming  
forget-me-nots, I want you to listen

in my final hours. I’ll have the soft  
harshness of my breath and a few words  
left to whisper. It’s been proved that  
breaking hearts make quiet noises

only rodents can hear. Maybe  
my final utterance will be noticed  
by you and a mouse pausing its gnawing,  
then slowly starting again.