words by dominic riccitello

i find darkness in virtue
broken down moments turned to rivers
you wake in choosing
life over damp closets

have you spun in rapids
pulling to find strength
riveting moments gone fleeting
i rescind the thought of
negativity in chambers worth living

you find stride in resilience
charity in the way you speak
a softness you hold like
jersey cotton sheets of our childhood

i find time in when
the bends of our clock
the tick you hear at night
i slip into
thunder and soft water
raining in time

you believe time is cut short
i believe time got the best of us
you grasp clocks in hallways
of your grandmother’s house
slipping into childhood
sunday mornings on the television

you moved like memory
quick to vanish, slow to settle
every room still holds your outline
a softness pressed into furniture
the warmth left behind by presence
without sound

34 years and i still remember
soft holds, lightened hands
time is how you treat it
video camera memories
birds chirping outside your bedroom window

jaded imagery

i remember time with a softness
it feels like sadness
yet it’s bittersweet

i still fold laundry like you did
still count heartbeats when silence lingers
there are pieces of you
in the way i leave the lights on
in the way i say certain things
in the way i breathe when i think

remember how i said
i’d always remember the way you were
i remember in details
in echoes
in time
outside our bedroom window
thinking how you thought
wondering how you’d remember us

sometimes i wonder if memory fades
or if it just changes shape
you live there now
in flickers
not like a photograph
but like light through curtains
on a quiet afternoon

and if time comes back
in moments
i’ll meet you there

words by dominic riccitello