Maybe hearts
Keep acceptable distance
To preserve what love
Remains fearful
Like a child whose wish
Knows no answer
Other than faith
During growth

And hope feels real
Despite life
Crushing each dream
So elusive
While outlasting truth
Ever honest
Though hardly close
When we reach

Towards harsher fates
Drawing near
With our changing plans
Seeming futile
By attempting feats
Never certain
Since assuming roles
Without choice

If embellished lies
Were some cure
Where sickness speaks
Small hyperboles
In demanding pills
Always empty
But expecting results
Nonetheless

Now dosing frowns
For their farce
Selling scripts
Called faraway friendships
Numbing needs
Only humans will suffer
Through medicine
Traded on touch

Until loneliness
Doesn’t suffice
Behind phone screens
Getting thicker
Taking videos
Sadly mistaken
As substitute souls
Being near.

• J. Pigno