There’s a scene
With steady departures
Facing fear
Of familiar landscapes
Along tarmacs stripped
Seeming infinite
Beyond gates which feel
Always stretched

And malls enclosed
Under canopies
Where faith through clouds
Ushers radiance
Into comfortable dreams
Almost brilliant
Until asphalt shards
Hit their glass

As my father fell
Choosing pavement
Next to men whose wish
Remained bludgeoned
After building lives
Poorly grounded
For believing planes
Ever flew

When his skies implied
Little wires
Or hammering meant
Missing freedoms
Like our windowed tasks
Leaving desktops
Bleeding out on checks
Getting lost

Seeing skylines melt
Over airwaves
While children prayed
Pushing buttons
From controllers held
Learning providence
Wasn’t God
But luminous screens

Since lingering glows
Enter slumbers
Haunting golden halls
Sharing flickers
Between eyelids locked
Merely worried
Open lifts can’t reach
Higher floors.

• J. Pigno