Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.
Jul 19, 2026
⭐ See this poem's read count — a supporter feature
Your Dad Still Texts Me
Did you know, your dad still texts me
Only briefly on Christmases and birthdays
we have a catch up over Whatsapp
and sadly its over in a few days
Your mum still likes my Strava posts
though she hasn’t posted with you in ages
Not that it matters of course
I guess that’s just grief in its stages
It’s been quite a few years since it ended
since my world as I knew it burned down
It’s taken me this long to be able to walk
near the streets I used to know of your town
I still know the layout of your house
the scent of your bedroom, the name of your dog.
He’ll be 8 now, I’d guess, or thereabouts
I hope his tiny tail still wags when he sees you
I miss throwing that frisbee
and watching him chew it
I miss holding your hand whilst we walked, too
We were fluent in each other back then
still, I know how you like your tea
I wish I didn’t remember the feeling
of the people we used to be
Now I spend most of my nights up late, thinking
"I’d go back right now if you asked me"
I still flinch when a song from that summer plays
whole playlists banished by grief
I’m sorry I kicked you off my Spotify
I guess it was a way to control how you’d leave
I was miserable and I’d still go back
It hurt and was still the best thing I had
Since then I haven’t had something like that
Still chasing the high that we had
Maybe we were never meant to make it
one of life’s cruellest lessons I guess
I lost a best friend, a lover, her family
we were something, nothing more nothing less
For a short but potent few years
We were honest, raw and utterly in love
Or that’s what I called it before the nights
I felt like I could never be enough
I went by your old workplace on main street
I wonder where you’re working now
Are you getting the most out of your English degree
I always knew you’d make your family proud
It’s weird knowing that at your graduation
I was still wondering if you wanted me there
Or that person you met a few months ago
The “just a friend” with the brownish blonde hair
I guess I knew I was easily replaceable
In that moment I knew we were done
Still we kept on pseudo-loving each other
Although most of the love was already gone
So, I hope you’re happy now
Not in a regretful I wish it was me way
Well a little bit in a wish it was me way
but I hope you’re happy with you
with whoever you’re with if you’re with someone
After all the hurt we'd been through
I’d rather you be content, than be with me
My world wobbles now without you
Does your world wobble now without me?
— Dcoups, Jul 19, 2026
Share this poem
About This Poem
Last Few Words: Feel free to critique, I'm completely new to poetry as you can tell but it's a useful creative outlet that I'm enjoying so far!
Review Request Direction: Is the internal logic consistent?
Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Editing Stage: Draft
Critiques
neopoet
2 days 6 hours ago
Neopoet AI [2026-06]
The below is a computer-generated response from Neo, Neopoet’s AI:
The poem's greatest strength is its emotional honesty and its accumulation of specific, lived detail — the dog's age estimated at eight, the Spotify culling, the Strava likes, the brownish-blonde hair. These concrete particulars do real work: they make the grief feel inhabited rather than performed, and they distinguish this speaker's loss from generic heartbreak. The turn in the penultimate stanza, where the speaker admits the wish is partly selfish even while disclaiming it, is the most psychologically true moment in the poem and earns its awkward, circling syntax because that is exactly how that feeling moves.
The main area to develop is the metrical and sonic consistency of the lines. Many stanzas carry a loose ballad-like rhythm that works well, but several lines break that contract without gaining anything in return — "Are you getting the most out of your English degree" and "It's weird knowing that at your graduation" are prosaic in a way that reads as accidental rather than deliberate. The poem would benefit from deciding whether these moments of flatness are intentional (suggesting the mundane weight of the thought) or whether tightening the syllables would sharpen them. The closing couplet — "My world wobbles now without you / Does your world wobble now without me?" — is close to a strong ending, but "wobbles" appears twice in close succession and slightly deflates what should be the poem's most resonant beat; finding a different verb for one of those lines, or restructuring so the echo feels earned rather than repeated, would lift the close considerably.
Please send feedback about Neo (our AI critique system) to our contact form.
Laura Pariani
2 days 5 hours ago
Your Dad Still Texts Me
I can really relate to this, and it brought back the tears in a flood. Very well written, and I had to until the end.
Join Neopoet to leave a critique
Neopoet is a free community of poets who critique and support each other's writing.