Danielle rests
By my side,

Her hastening breaths
Making echoes,

Off the ceiling
Now covered with shadows
Our dimly lit room
Still reveals

Come mornings
Both hands are entwined

Leaving sweat
Where space used to linger

When I was alone
Chasing specters
Off reflections
That TV projects –

Some shows which
Got me through nights
Finding this heart
Far too heavy,

Beating so fast
There were instruments
Kept at all times
Near my bed,

For once measuring
Symptoms of loss
While watching cartoons
Play on silent

And hearing those sounds
From dreamt terrors
Bleed into days
Hardly real.

Being married
Has offered no cure,

Always swearing these fears
Create figures

Just dancing on walls
While we lay there
Like parallel lives
Taking shape

During moments
Forgetting time’s passed
Between memories
Reminding me often
How loneliness
Waits beyond visions
Anxieties wish
Weren’t true –

Only noticed
If she falls asleep,

Since watching such forms
Never witnessed
Means thinking their world
Housing darkness
Has tainted what light
Love can grant.

God protects us
Under warm sheets,

Building faith
Despite pain’s reappearance,

Worrying less
After learning
Even phantoms revere
Certain vows.

• J. Pigno