Better days
Live forever on tape
As the VCR spins
What is missing
When memories made
Remain captured
Through staticky screens
Nearly gone

Like analog gifts
Almost lost
With such holiday scenes
Long forgotten
Of smiles unknown
Off in corners
Where those relatives sat
Just to hide

Looking grim
Yet laughing again
Shielding faces
Feeling so guilty
But staying that night
Never sleeping
Playing video games
From our beds

Until childhood dreams
Became texts
Every birthday now
Still believing
How one day soon
Those old visits
Might happen again
Though they can’t

Knowing time outside
Grainy films
Has left more ghosts
Than its pictures
Whose images blur
Beyond meaning
During nightmares
Wishing things back

Before death itself
Ushers age
Along digital lines
All around us
Making empty space
Between people
Seem up close
Despite being far.

• J. Pigno