Following the publication of Ovada marittima, Nico Priano presents his second collection, Il segno del costume (The Sign of the Costume), works whose titles suggest the contrast between the unlimited expanse of the sea, that is, the total realisation of the human being, and the demarcation of reality, as an awareness of the loneliness and limitations of our condition. Ovada, in fact, is not located on the sea, and the swimsuit marks a line between the part of the body exposed to the sun and the part protected by clothing. It is precisely in the eponymous composition that the poet reveals the two fundamental themes of this text: the need to understand reality and the awareness of the transience of existence.

We need confirmation,

a sign that asserts

that we are truly alive,

[...]

And we leave

when the season ends,

just as

the mark of the swimsuit disappears.