Why bother
With talentless words
Which pale when compared
To those feelings
Once seized long ago
On such papers
That were so very real
Being young?

Now knowing
There’s nobody left
Has revealed they’re lost
Like a story
That I never could tell
Always dreaming
If an audience cared
Just to hear.

For my poems exist
All alone
Inside this screen
Growing smaller
Like better souls blessed
Truly gifted
But discovered too late
When online

Since internet fame
Never lasts
Or becomes how hope
Kills our meaning
While pandering hard
Begging readers
For chances sought
Barely earned

Failing eyes
Squandered by math
Catching random fates
Hardly witnessed
Beneath scrolling lines
Hiding lifetimes
Deliberately placed
Under dates

Where their context
Explains every phrase
Still hidden behind
Anonymity
Now our double-edged sword
Claiming victory
Over honest souls
Sharing heart.

• J. Pigno