I’m afraid
This will only get worse
As complacency breeds
True inaction
Than striving for change
Near impossible
Only effortless prayers
Never grasp

Being better off sought
When agreeing
How our suffering sings
Even louder
Despite what noise
Drowns these symptoms
In a mournful shame
Barely heard

Behind talking heads
Making speeches
On their constant screens
Still distracting
Such confident souls
Sounding whistles
To stop this game
Always dumb

Blaming everyone else
But themselves
Or society’s hate
Which perpetuates
Over money and guns
Taking precedence
While yelling at God
They need more

Barely sorrowful
Burying dead
But refusing how greed
Is that sickness
Just watching decay
Claim the bodies
Of spiritual rot
Called success

Citing freedom
Behind every kill
While mandating lives
So unequal
Soon pushing each side
Towards aggression
Quickly silencing
Those who rebel.

• J. Pigno

It’s hard to accept
Every ache
And a mirror with
Overnight changes
When the days themselves
Become static
Like another lost soul
Going numb

Where nothing exists
Beyond sameness
As dreams once held
Appear monochrome
Against colorful lives
Getting younger
Comparing those paints
Far apart

On our canvas
Smaller than God
Now contained in flesh
Claustrophobic
Beneath finite stars
Growing faded
Like these darkened streaks
Below eyes

Whose jagged folds
Tell their stories
About seeking love
Over lifetimes
Enduring each threat
Heaven dangles
Through illness and death
Always near

Since agony comes
Even quicker
Despite what attempts
Remain desperate
Making money for work
Never ending
Just so torture evades
Feeling whole

Meaning little but fear
Called success
Denies this truth
More hilarious
How human belief
Merely placates
Being born
Though we’re already old.

• J. Pigno

I can’t get away
From these feelings
Which change on a dime
Without reason
Other than mocking
What fortitude
It takes to exist
Every day

Or even attempt
Despite knowing
How blessings become
Sore reminders
Of moments not seized
Facing illness
These doctors agree
Is made up

Despite how they last
During calmness
Ruining quiet retreats
Between bedsheets
While holding my wife
Battling hardship
Still far more intense
Than this pain

Whose health can improve
Only praying
Her husband may thrive
Beyond waiting
For suffering’s end
We both witness
At night in our dreams
Holding hands

Since having such hope
Appears worthy
As these tested years
Should expire
Learning happiness
Naturally blossoms
Once accepting that dirt
Underneath

Where circumstance sits
Asking questions
Perhaps God only knows
Lacks an answer
Watching humans endure
Further torture
Soon believing sometime
They’ll escape.

• J. Pigno

Am I ignoring
The miserable truth
How riding this pain
Keeps me going
As evidenced by
Honest feelings
Being easy to write
Once again?

Their certain demands
Are now met
Through repeated misuse
Of each memory
When twisted in thought
Always anxious
After silent retreats
Holding back

During months left alone
Having nightmares
And journaling dreams
Even better
Than any such phrase
I could conjure
Would describe before grief
Came so close

After watching my life
Still unfold
Like tattered remains
Hiding pictures
On pages we’ve torn
Fighting demons
Soon coming right back
Taking shape

Since clawing with rage
Killing blessings
Seeking solace it learned
Was too precious
For losers whose prose
Demands hardship
Where happiness means
Lacking voice

If seeing those near
Often suffer
Brings words beyond brinks
Barely voyaged
Getting high off that fall
Growing steeper
Not worried how hope
Never lands.

• J. Pigno

I remember
That old man fell
Clutching his chest
Like in movies
On a tiled floor
Where he waited
For the help which came
Far too late

Near slot machines
Louder than screams
Drowning out words
As they shouted
Watching him squirm
Feeling helpless
While we walked right past
Staring down

With police all around
Blocking pathways
Shoving us soon
Even further
Preventing one’s glance
From connecting
Under lights so bright
They had burned

Like blown-glass suns
Bearing witness
Above large crowds
Never caring
When another soul there
Just expired
Amid chaos enjoyed
Out of greed

Where another scene lost
Behind madness
Remained my fear
Grown incarnate
During leisure now killed
Watching tragedy
Mature right before
Pleasant lies

By accepting such fate
More symbolic
Since this date was ruined
Seeing sadness
Emerge through air
Lacking warning
Much how our lives
Would unfold.

• J. Pigno

I’ve abandoned
Every last friend
From the fact this pain
Keeps persisting
With each passing year
Spent neglecting
What solemn divide
Merely grows

As holidays come
Only once
Reminding how time
Pushes roughly
Against our attempts
At such happiness
Squandered by trying
Too hard

When phone calls last
Many minutes
But visits seem sad
After seconds
Feeling their lives
Appear better
And yours truly dull
If compared

While suffering still
In that place
Wearing monitors
Catching those rhythms
Reflecting my heart
Truly broken
Like insides torn
Losing faith

Grieving yesterdays
Never much loved
Though hindsight twists
Certain moments
Since memories mold
Around wishes
Connections will shape
Seeking hope

Yet finding relief
Doesn’t last
Or stem from meals
Shared together
But hardens with age
Learning peacefulness
Means silently waiting
For death.

• J. Pigno

Where are the dreams
We once witnessed
Caught in these lights
Laid before us
Around each branch
Gently nestled
Strung across trees
Bearing bulbs?

I keep pining
For wishes long lost
After childhood’s end
Unassuming
As those innocent days
Often special
Soon yielded to life
Taking place

When seasons became
Nothing more
Than reminders of age
Always taking
Like an envious friend
Watching presents
Being opened again
That were yours

Until illness
Replaced every gift
Spending Christmas alone
Hearing laughter
Down hallways dark
Making hospitals
Feel like our home
Far away

While corners at night
Contain stars
Reflecting their glow
Rarely noticed
Off Yuletide wreaths
Shining evidence
Only can God see
Is still there

How faith persists
Despite hope
Throwing memories
Heaven will fumble
Beneath layered fears
Hiding meaning
Under thickening snow
Falling down.

• J. Pigno

There is much to be said
About trauma
Since it follows us home
Like a stranger
But ends up our friend
By accepting
There are angels in rooms
When we’re there

From appropriate scars
Without waste
For healing such wounds
Lacking witness
Other than eyes
Locking briefly
Before sharing their sights
Said aloud

Through bravest speech
Never placed
If waiting on space
Feeling welcome
Behind silent walls
Missing blessings
Once written outside
What was built

Beyond that shame
Undeserving
While hiding away
Almost always
Where proudest hurt
Deserves fanfares
So healing begins
Yet again

When another soul
Grasps at this soil
Pulling up truth
Beneath torment
Under buried beliefs
Merely mourning
Alone among thoughts
Pain imposed

Until light up above
Appears close
Taking faintest of shapes
Showing faces
Still staring right back
Also damaged
Yet conquering graves
Using prayers.

• J. Pigno

God help me
I really want nothing
Except for this pain
To expire
Like a bad dream
Always returning
But being awake
When it comes

While admitting now
Sleep never works
At relieving such fear
Still experienced
Except if that rest
Implies dying
Without even knowing
What hits

As doctors insist
Nervous hearts
Are reason enough
Behind torment
Causing these nights
So deserving
Since suffering means
Being right

Still excusing each twinge
Felt inside us
Or neglecting how truth
Too insistent
Appears through deep hurt
Purely physical
And mortally wrong
Left ignored

Seeing arrogant men
Always jealous
Of artists so free
They keep fighting
Before leaving behind
Honest wisdom
Admitting their lies
Never worked

Where beauty entails
Every evidence
Those medicines failed
Fighting nature
Knowing faith can’t abide
By rejecting
Our experienced ills
Very real.

• J. Pigno

It’s about time
For leaving early
After sharing
A couple good laughs
As those few days turn
Into decades
When happiness
Always seems rare

Until our goodbyes
Offer hindsight
Letting feelings once held
Become burdens
Where an exit now looms
Without warning
Even knowing how death
Cannot wait

Before each breath
Appears lost
Between said words
Still remaining
On emptier winds
Breezing past us
Pushing those doors
Sadly shut

So another life
Fades behind skin
Like invisible hearts
Barely beating
And heard through each chest
Amid silence
Until this flesh
Just gives up

Yielding questions
Rather than faith
Transforming that fear
From raw solace
But festering rage
Beneath memories
Hurting what hope
Gets replaced

Departing too soon
Being stubborn
Watching loved ones
Leap beyond reason
Over heaven’s cliff
Stealing moments
Yet to be had
Though they wish.

• J. Pigno