Rich Kid’s Burden

The only fate
Worse
Than cursedness
Is being
Far too blessed

And owning such courage
To know this
While admitting
The rest
Have it rough,

As bearing
The rich kid’s burden
Was something
I learned
To live with

Each time
They were quick
To judge me
Without ever reading
My words –

For truth
Is never convincing
From materials
Built
For exchanges

But a spirit
Which rings eternally
From the echo
Of phrases
In ink,

When goods
Fall victim
To ages
Quicker than fiction
Grows heavenly

Upon eyes
Of readers interpreting
Those verses
As tangible
Chance

Denying money
For substance
And the problems
It turns
Into privilege

By sharing
What hopes I imagine
Are divisible
Equally
With God.

– J. Pigno

No Game

What nature
Doesn’t realize
Is that kindness
Matters less
To the proud
And winning people
Whose triumph
Offers more

When playing fate
For freedom
Regardless
Of its context
With wars
Made of decisions
By declaring
Bets are off

Now choosing
Bigger dreams
Over gains
Both small and waning
Relinquished
From their prisons
As wishes
Built on chance

Still meaning
To proceed
Despite those odds
Against them
Beyond all worth
Or measure
Of the hope
Which conquers death

Fear
Not of their loss
But a God
That means conceding
To the vagueness
Of forgiveness
Like evidence
Showing grief

As hurt
Which must propel
And drive their marches
Forward
In a wave
Of frenzied masses
Who claim each battle
Dear

Knowing
That they’re wrong
And proving
Games are vile
While swearing
Something special
Is deserved
For those engaged.

– J. Pigno

We’d finally
Made it back
To Orlando
When I realized
Vacations
Must end

Sometime
Before we
Departed
On the journey
Where forever
Did start

From gates
And crowded
Terminals
Crawling
With dreams
Of escaping

In this getaway
Of failing
Efforts
To secure
Some sense
Of control

Beyond
Such lines
And airports
Which rounded us
Weakly
Like cattle

Herding
Our hopes
Into numbers
As we wondered
What God
Could await

Such miniscule
Masses of
People
Fearing control
Of their
Wishes

All of them
Looking
For answers
But each of us
Equally
Lost

Landing
By prayers
To see palm trees
Beneath
That dusk
So inviting

Arriving
In time
For those fireworks
To explode
As they welcomed us
Home

Stranding me
Halfway
To heaven
As the worship
Of leisure
Presided

Over murals
Outside
That fake castle
Where I smiled
And found myself
Whole

Happy
As brief
Ever afters
I knew
Just can’t be
Eternal

But special
For the moment
They lasted
And divine
As the respite
We shared.

– J. Pigno