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I think your first and last stanzas are really, really strong. I love the "d" sounds in those first few lines and that dark, night imagery in gorgeous. My favorite line in that first stanza is probably "quiet afterhours," I can feel the stillness, the isolation.

As for the last stanza, "tall ceilings / trap much more than heat" is a **killer** line and I like the dreamy, yearning energy. You've also got some nice alliteration/consonance/assonance going on that makes the stanza feel cohesive and fluid.

As for the middle stanzas, I love the repetition of "tap," though I think you could play with it even more on the page, spacing the taps out (it doesn't have to be far though). My biggest critique is that you lose the visceral imagery (the diction drops as well) of those first and last stanzas, and while I think that might be intentional, I'm not sure it works. In comparison to the other two stanzas, they almost seem too conspicuous, blunt, and don't sport the same impressive command of

One can dive off 

the deep end of a night-

into the dark abyss

of the quiet afterhours.

Shadows of the day's noise

beating rhythmically

against the eardrums

after they fill with water. 


&amp;nbsp;


Pop-- the world goes quiet.

But tap a finger 

on the wall and 

listen as it amplifies. 


&amp;nbsp;


Tap tap--

Why are there 

so many hours in a day

but nothing can get done?


&amp;nbsp;


Tap tap--

How many more 

whiny tantrums can a person

take before they break?


&amp;nbsp;


Tap tap--

Why are self care

and time

so mutually exclusive?


&amp;nbsp;


Tap tap--

Why must relationships

break down so that

familiarity is the only glue?


&amp;nbsp;


Tall ceilings

trap much more than heat.

The hopes rise too

and sit between the rafters.

To get them back

one must reverse the fans. 

But what to do,

if you can never reach them?


&amp;nbsp;


[Crit 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/yfagzf/softer_softest_is_this_a_good_title)


&amp;nbsp;


[Crit 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/yfbz9h/almost)

Silent sounds