Long have I
Been removed
As God’s
Unholy witness
Who received
His strange
Dictation
Through verse
Not claimed
My own –

Wandering
Daily mists
Within these dreams
Forsaken
When gardens
Gray
And sulking
Pervade
What sleep
Stays fogged,

While soon
Such visions tell
Of gates
Where ivy
Tether
An entrance
To that channel
Among
Old headstones
Bare

Like rare
Yet sacred dreams
Which share
Bare answers
Scattered
Between each
Vivid passage
With words
Whose worth
Feels wrong.

New graveyards
Follow suit
During evenings
Fate becomes me
Minding tongues
No mouth can
Utter
Seeking ways
Those phrases
Speak

Upon pages
Missing seams
Failing gifts
Once deemed
Effective
Yielding proof
Most prophets
Stutter
Using language
True
But flawed

Showing signs
All lines
Deceive
Without faith
Behind their meaning
Haunting daylight
Still so lucky
It should come
Despite
This test,

Since our sun
Demands we pray
Even if
Tomorrow
Kills us
Still agreeing
Death forever
Is believing
At high
Cost –

Never learning
Faith redeems
Doubting hearts
Relieved
By poets
Fearing judgment
They must suffer
For forgiveness
Art may
Grant,

Though I gather
Every term
Lifts me higher
Now
Towards heaven
Granting solace
Outside coffins
Lining nightmares
Pens
Will write.

– J. Pigno