I follow smoke
Towards waking
Where the fires burn
From sunlight
As the rays beat down
Oblivious
To what dizziness
Fades like dreams

When existence
Emerges sideways
Knowing days just
Aren’t worth living

While burning wicks
Stay hurting,

Counting sparks
Such bombs expect –

An explosion
Oddly calm
In its nothingness
Tangibly rendered
By these agonies
Telling our senses
Fleeting feelings
Mean much more.

This experience
Making cinders
Values tears
Good men go seeking,

With solutions warm
Yet urgent
Now cascading
Down their face –

That tranquil drip
Through passions
Holding prayers
So often stifled,

Hiding God
Beneath wrong answers

Fearing freedoms
Thought long gone.

How we swallow
Empty flames
Facing threats
Emerging slowly

Every morning
Chasing pleasures
Kindling ashes
Rest has quelled,

Finding secrets
Held inside-

Faking silence
Before breaking,

Letting floodgates rip
Expressing
Every fear those blazes
Fueled.

Let all sadness flow
Regardless
Of bad standards
Life keeps heating,

Squashing tongues
Called expectation
Upon learning
Fate is dead.

• J. Pigno