We still must fight
The embellished
With its lies so bold
That they glimmer,

And words which flash
When repeated
Blinding all those
Who can see –

A light extreme
Bearing witness
To deceive those forced
In dark corners

And remain obscure
Despite begging
For one small lamp
Of their own.

No wick worth flames
Lacks acceptance
By rejecting hands
Bearing candles,

Faking each flare
Wasting fire
Using brilliance now
Against truth.

Some beacons
Burn before eyes
Can perceive such rays
Causing tinders,

Killing us all
Using radiance
How skies guide souls
Toward no end –

So deep into space
Left adrift
Upon restless beams
Seeking something,

But rarely defined
Going farther
Than any decent God
May allow.

Could honest men
Really thrive
If appearing dim
Though impeccable?

Anyone bright
Only sparkles
By oppressing stars
Left unknown.

• J. Pigno

I am not fooled
By the glitter
Which conceals
Their sadness
In sparkles

Or a shimmer
Of pasts
Hung on branches
Where yesterdays
Dangle like weights,

Such tears held down
Falling heavy
Along evergreens
Lighted
And garnished

As these decorative
Tombs
Bearing keepsakes
Remembering times
Better spent –

Our glass orbs
Hanging
With photos
Besides colorful bulbs
Feigning solace

Since ghosts
Inside
Rare mementos
Remain present
In glows they reflect.

Can we truly
Forget
Who is living
Letting phantoms
Carry those trinkets,

If holidays come
Just to suffer
What wrath
Every legacy
Yields?

Some prefer
Forgetting again
Though running
Hardly
Means winning.

My winter
Accompanies feelings
Warm
Yet cold
All the same.

• J. Pigno

I’m on my way
Towards an end
No God who cares
Would appreciate

When our demons help
Bitter heavens
Ensure that hell
Here and now –

Easy suffering
Forced to comply
Despite what love
Appears selfish

Or feeble attempts
At escaping
By resisting sins
Swallowed whole

In acts of fear
Bottles hold
With pills like dreams
Counted daily

Through another dose
Seeking some solace
But fleetingly felt
Wearing off,

Where failure learns
Nothing lasts
Seeing agony beg
Certain devils

For one more chance
Worth redeeming
Before learning fate
Isn’t real

When dying again
Every night
Implies waking still
Being empty

Knowing hope itself
Cannot heal us
Only kill
What’s already dead.

Yes, perhaps
Arriving on time
Means avoiding pain
Any further,

Since enduring life
Never mattered
If breathing less
While aware.

• J. Pigno

Here’s to
The angry young man
Inside this shell
Feeling haggard

With a few last lines
Aging poorly
From remaining unwell
Everyday

As maturing minds
Missing youth
Are rarely at rest
When explaining

All that constant pain
Lacking reason
Other than God
Hates them more

Than truths held down
Seeking words,

What hearts will write
Needing rhythm,

Now potentially lost
Before learning
Only beautiful beats
Always skip –

Knowing poetry kills
Through belief,

Ignoring how blind
Illness makes us

Where examples build
Over decades
Finding beauty obscure
If not close

Under wrinkled flesh
Growing numb,

Letting failures sit
Like exhaustion

Upon each term
Having madness
Its appropriate voice
Which responds.

I wish time would wait
Just for once,

Leaving ample room
Around wisdom

Until such rage
Jades expressiveness,

Fading so fast
While we rot.

• J. Pigno

I am blessed
With maintaining
A semblance
Of that brokenness
Poetry needs

By our lives
Always robbed
Seeking promises
No God had sworn
They would make –

Trying so damn hard
Working daily
With tomorrow
Another gift
Coming

But for us
Such happiness
Swindled
And an emptiness
Sold as best bets,

When today
Can’t ever escape
Where each dream
Still look likes
This present

Now repeatedly lost
Making choices
Since pursuing
What most
Undermine

Through rebelling
Against every lie
That those doctors
Claimed
Was an illness

Or some school
Had said
Missed the meaning
If profit
Didn’t come first.

I’m glad
We can’t truly explain
How each loss
Can feel
More immortal,

Taking from pain
What is gorgeous
Yet turning
These fears
Into truth –

Another bad thief
Passing judgment
On misfortune
Real
Though enriching

To rise
Once more
Being victims
Never failures
Capturing verse.

• J. Pigno

I plunged from the labyrinth
Reeling
As the dream had doors
Missing numbers
But behind each wall
Was a crawlspace
Hiding holes towards skies
Deepest blue

Where inside those halls
Never ending
Without exit or hints
There was meaning
Lived my fears beyond
Every portal
Showing hell was pain
On repeat

But shifting its scenes
Quickly changing
Like its lobby of pasts
Soon encountered
Taking lifts towards floors
Waiting nightly
To begin their fears
Once again

Sitting high atop
Pointed spires
Always facing that sun
Seeming purple
While clouds far below
Appeared orange
After desperate attempts
Chasing death

Praying God heals pain
Felt forever
Hoping heaven might help
If descending
By forgiving those bricks
Sin erected
Just to leap right off
Trusting faith

Into ripples released
So familiar
Making colorful spheres
All around me
Defying each sense
Worth describing
But somehow content
Falling down.

• J. Pigno

A static hiss
Jars me awake
From the hijacked scene
Which keeps playing
Of that life long passed
Missing color
With its laugh tracks on
Causing shame

And somehow unseen
By my wife
While these images flash
When she’s sleeping
Just besides our set
Soon disrupted
Showing sitcoms now
Never aired

But debuting tonight
As I feared
Having program blocks
Stuck in limbo
Still repeating each line
Never funny
Seeming so damn fake
That they hurt

Catching analog dreams
All alone
Watching faces blurred
Speak their horrors
Of those memories real
Needing filters
Yet experienced now
Once again

Wishing jokes they told
Weren’t true
Across fading sets
Too nostalgic
Where colors stay washed
Behind lenses
Letting decades long gone
Become ghosts

Grieving happiness
Lost over time
Starring better selves once
Than our present
Beneath monochrome grins
Growing scary
Only TV land
Ever knows.

• J. Pigno

I have never been
Healthy or happy

But at least there is
Plenty to say

About suffering long
Without answers

Like this pain
All poets should know,

From eternities
Wasted in waiting

Like a time loop
Spent hearing doctors

Talk down towards those
Always writing

Inside their heads
Getting judged –

For decay can’t hurt
If you’re feeling

Still more than most
Ever wondered

Could sustain such words
While resenting

Yet another good day
They might have,

Unlike ourselves
Merely yearning

When we grieve what’s lost
Feigning solace

But entirely ruined
Making money

Since born as souls
Breaking down

These shallow walls
Rebels breach,

Merely seeking death
Prematurely

Or another good line
Going crazy

When kissing that muse
Bearing knives.

So torture me now
Using terms

And accepting life
Keeps repeating

For creating verse
Means destroying

Every hope enjoyed
By the rest.

• J. Pigno

Hell is being
Painfully whole
And aware of what’s wrong
Till it kills us

Like a poem one says
Without semblance
Of the deepest beliefs
They can hide

By questioning hope
Fairly bold
When bargaining hurt
Always honest

Or worse yet now
Begging questions
Much harder than prose
Ever asked

But behind each page
Barely turned
After writing this fate
Soon exhausted

From exhuming dreams
Fear had buried
Beneath emptier days
Spent alive

Leaving graves upturned
Right at home
Where another lost night
Beckons shovels

Which disturbs each hole
Moving soil
Seeking death’s fair share
Far below

What’s concealing light
Once entombed
Long before such words
Cast their shadow

And my age held proof
There was meaning
Through our passing time
Being felt

Until happiness
Ceased to exist
Trading twisted vows
For what’s easy

Where normal stole
Broken pieces
Still better off split
Than intact.

• J. Pigno