What lives
You learned to fight
Have never gone
Unnoticed

In ways
My heart takes ransom
These dreams
You’ve won for me,

Not from
Easy scars
But means
I’d never envy

When swords
Of inner demons
Bear hilts
Most cannot lift

Which always
Seem to share
Such weight
We hold regardless

Of the difference
Left unspoken
During battles
Waged on time –

Our separate
Kingdoms come
Like answers
Better silenced

For sins
Called understanding
Where resentment
Takes its toll.

Your sacrifice
Never scared
Even if
Staying angry

And keeping me
Fairly nourished
At expense
Of taking hits,

Too sad
To see your gifts
Fall among
Such freedoms wasted

Perceived
Not by your child
But a man
Who’s barely strong –

Nowhere near as you
Crushing pasts
Under conquered
Mountains

Claiming
Raging soldiers
Where death
Is certain choice

And accepting
Daily pain
For the sake
I may not have it

Admitting
Daily bloodshed
Is the way
You’d stay alive,

As fathers
Make their sons
Out of courage
Breaking limits

Combatting
Countless armies
Each day
They long to give.

– J. Pigno