Joseph Riippi (2007 Honorable Mention)

Rings

A couple sits in a café across
from me, and I peer over my book watching
their quiet fight. They are silent and
full of hard gestures - steel hands and eyes
"You're a bastard," says the tattooed arm.
"Fuck yourself," say jeweled fingers, clinking teacups.
Quiet fights are quite ordinary. Split
a relationship to see its odd rings.
I settle the novel and turn to watch.
They are fine, they are in the midst of love,
when sucking tells less than a touch,
when indifference tells more than a fuck.




Joseph Riippi is a recent Pacific Northwest defector. He was born at raised in Seattle but currently lives in Manhattan. He is a staff writer at several magazines and newspapers, and the Arts & Opinions Editor at Beyond Race Magazine in New York. In 2007 he won the 2nd Annual Farmhouse Magazine Prize in Fiction. Joseph is The Commonline Project's 2007 Honorable Mention in Poetry. He was selected for his poem entitled "Rings".