I enjoy nights
Drowning in heartbeats
Letting sweaty sheets
Cradle illness
From a race I’d run
Feeling breathless
While chasing fears
All alone

On an empty bed
Where I linger,

And wither away
Chewing nightmares,

Growing stiff
Like some lifeless body
We become
When our meaning subsides –

An expensive dream
Never nourished
During daylight hopes
Seeming meager,

Missing meals
But savoring punishments
Lacking words
This soul always needs.

Every morning
I’m hungry again –

Not enthused,
Yet entirely famished

For something real
Most poetic

Or at least
An expression with taste.

• J. Pigno