That evening sky
Like a scar
Across summer days
Turning purple
Would guide us back
During roadtrips
To the porch outside
Our hotel

Where orange clouds
Nearly burned
As their glow soon dimmed
Over cornfields
And marked such pain
Feeling longer
By bloodier dusks
Looming still

Like my fear inside
Easy youth
On those weekends gone
Growing worried
When time seemed slow
Eating ice cream
Watching futures creep
While we sweat

Missing crickets
Who sound far away
Or passing cars
Well behind me
As they traveled along
Empty hillsides
Leaving country towns
Unaware

But in this mind
Never lost
From wounded nights
Dripping sadness
Under heavens low
Feeling closer
Than death had nudged
Knowing peace

If faith endured
Though it won’t
Seeking recess now
Though each memory
Only real once more
Seeing sunlight
Fade beyond old rooms
Where I stayed.

• J. Pigno