At night
While I’m falling asleep
My mind recalls
Sadder stories,

Like the kind you’d read
Browsing forums
Where people turn
Feeling unheard –

How they nurture their woes
Very real
After learning how God
Doesn’t coddle

Or understand pain
Merely human
To empathize with
What we face.

These mounting ills
Steal our breath
So preciously spent
Seeking answers

While losing that voice
Using effort
To connect once again
Before death,

When time runs out
Fearing life
Confronting each threat
Unrelenting

Long after youth
Has expired
Spending moments now
Growing too old –

Wasting health
Loving everyone else
Except for those
Who still need it

Finding faith falls short
Of experience
Knowing prayer
Dangles carrots on souls

About promises
Never quite kept
In hospital beds
Drawing curtains,

Bringing fates
Even more upsetting
Always sharing
This ending alone.

• J. Pigno