We can never escape
Fitting lyrics
Which have issued
Their timeless apology

To perpetual youth
Still unsettled
By a world undone
Now for good –

Generations stacked
With bereavement
And rebellion
Mourned like intention

Of those artists left
Who attempted
At offering truth
While they could,

As each song
Stays eerily relevant
In decades wrong
We keep choosing

When treating fate
More expendable
Than our failing discs
Spinning round,

Since playing low
Though repeating
That needle’s noise
Become static

Against louder screams
Drowning voices
Only deafened regimes
Cannot hear.

I’m forever
An angry young man
Catching vinyl notes
Between heartbeats,

Dancing where walls
Split connections
Envisioning hope
Barely there –

These guitar riffs
Capturing feelings
Crafted so raw
Though meticulous,

Another sad song
Proving anthems
Predict stories
Real once again.

• J. Pigno