Words by Dominic Riccitello | Writer & Modern Poet

i feel the rope
the edges of how it grips
to touch a void
the mark it leaves behind

rings of your hands
the veins, how they slip
i plead to noise
to echoes
to the way sound carries us

the vibration of how we meet
in moments like this
where time bends
and we speak to each other
through distance
through constellations
of how we used to exist

i find myself
at the ridge of a mountain
watching the voices of your name
and i speak in plural
because i never know who i get
in moments like this

in moments where i lose patience
with where i have been

we exist like this
to understand
to breathe
to live between a creek and an ocean
to decide
if we belong to what was
or what we thought it should have been

i leave you here
with the lisp behind your tongue
the way you use words
without holding their weight
how they fall from you
down your neck

with hands i used to hold
the veins
how they met mine
when we touched

i used to love
the pressure
the tension
the way we lived
between moments

where you knew what i meant
before i said your name

at times i feel us blur
like words on paper
like a house that creaks at night
holding the noise we leave behind

and i expect you to understand
maybe more than i should

still, i leave you here
with the words i couldn’t keep
like mondays when we split
and everything we said
drifts from where we left it

we move through these details
we bend toward each other
the touch leaves us
apart, yet still held

if you believe
in the weight of your fingers on mine
then you believe
in the way things can bend

but choosing
is something else

i will leave you in the echoes
it’s for you to decide

the creek
or the ocean

words by dominic riccitello