My room

Is dark

Except the nightlight

My wife bought

In Cape Cod

It’s a shell nightlight

My wife loved the ocean

And collected shells

And sea glass

My wife died

In Cape Cod

A rental on the beach

In her sleep

The room was dark

Except the glow of

The sea shell night light

The one she bought

The week before she died

She thought it was pretty

She was exceptionally pretty

Especially by the light

Of the sea shell nightlight

The one I look at every night

Before I go to sleep

With the sound of ocean waves

That I still hear in my head

Dreaming of her

Collecting shells

And sea glass

On the beach of Cape Cod

Every summer

Until the last one

The last time I walked

On a beach in Cape Cod

Peter Solomita is a Brooklyn-based musician, chef, and writer whose debut collection of poems and stories was composed entirely on his mobile phone while navigating New York City during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this work, he paints vivid portraits of the characters he encounters daily, weaving narratives of loss and redemption alongside glimpses into his own struggle for survival and search for transcendence. Solomita’s writing reflects the raw immediacy of lived experience, capturing the resilience of city life and the human spirit in times of upheaval.