It Only Took One

A Lady Writing Johannes Vermeer c. 1665

Ask anyone who almost quit
what stopped them. They will not say grit.
They'll name the table, name the year,
and one voice that kept saying: here.

Post after post, and no one came.
Then one plain comment, no big name:
I liked this. That was all it said.
Three words, and they stayed in my head.

They came back for the next one, too.
Then the one after. Soon I knew
I wasn't posting to thin air.
I wrote for one person out there.

One Tuesday, scrolling, half-machine,
I passed a first post, views: thirteen.
I typed, I liked this — nothing more,
the same three words I'd waited for.

Next Tuesday brought their second post.
No fireworks. Thirteen views at most.
But it was there. They hadn't quit.
One view was mine. That's all. That's it.

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