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QuillOak

Free Verse · Life

What You Built

by The QuillOak Editors

1The job gets a replacement;

2the work, though — the work was never

3the spreadsheets or the shifts.

4It was the steadiness people set their clocks by,

5the new hires you turned into colleagues,

6the thousand small rescues nobody logged.

7That doesn't retire.

8That walks out the door with you,

9wearing your name.

Original poem © QuillOak — personal sharing is permitted.

Quick facts

Poem
What You Built
Poet
The QuillOak Editors
Length
9 lines
Form
Free Verse
Themes
Life, Inspirational

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Original QuillOak text. Personal sharing is permitted; other reuse requires permission.

Author record
The QuillOak Editorstoday
Source record
QuillOak originalWhat You Built, authored for QuillOak by The Quillery
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 46a181f543e18079
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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