To think that
All of this time
I should have been
Asking myself

Perhaps
The reason I’m single
Is because she’s
Better than me –

For what
Have I really secured
To earn such love
From a woman

When writing
A few weak phrases
And calling them
Art with a cause?

As poetry
Isn’t some gift
But the job
Of heaven almighty –

A calling
Which can be serious
If honoring God
Through your voice,

For money
Isn’t its bliss
Or message
Of written salvation

And that’s hardly
Deserving of safeties
Or a chance
At making her swoon.

For she needs
You to offer her life
And not such fear
Of resentment

Like miseries
Born of this talent
Which follow hurt
Where they must,

Deep into pits
Of regret
And tragedies
Born from distinctions

Amassed
As failures witnessed
To better relate
Through our words.

So before
Growing easily mad
And questioning
“Why am I lonely?”

Peer within
At those demons
And realize
It’s better to wait

Than jumping
Headfirst into hate
Or pounding on doors
For an answer

Accepting these locks
Are a blessing
Many
Would rather not see.

– J. Pigno

These simple
And faultless lies
Are spun from
Precious treasons
I commit in defense
Of villainy
On behalf of hate
Towards myself

Believing
Careless truths
By wearing veils
Unnatural
So the effort
Of feigning interest
Is work enough
To deceive

What fate
Describes in chance
As the hour
Of fallen pillars
When palaces
Made of answers
Crumble quick
Under weighted dreams

Like ploys
Of heaviest stone
Cracking walls
With daily pressures
And tearing holes
Beneath me
Till the floor
Gives out below

When empathy
Precedes death
As its faulty
Motivation
To maintain hope
By praying
Destruction
Has no cost

But the cure
Of raging souls
Which tremble much
From quaking
As sand
Between their footings
Shifts fast
And calls that bluff

Demolishing
Every inch
Of freedom
Built for changing
Where gold
Along this shadow
Outlines
Empty space

Proving
Words unread
Are the hurt
I’ve always needed
To redeem
My conquered riches
Like castles
Left for dirt

Kingdoms
Once unearthed
By daring feats
And martyrs
With excuses
Made exceptions
For the sake
Of keeping sane

Abandoned
As they lay
Now overgrown
And victim
To my fear
Of being useful
As I know
I’m always not.

– J. Pigno

Our penchant
For mortal weakness
Is the way
All futures end

Knowing things
Left defeated
Are preserved
As living gods

Like tales we mold
As victims
And narratives
Shaped together

Out of remnants
Lost to heresay
Or religions
Carved from stone

Tragic
But never real
When discovered
In ashen ruins

Among heroes
Supposedly worshipped
Made of marble
Or broken clay

As pasts
Are dangrous visions
Of potentials
Often wasted

Enabling
Prior chapters
To glorify
Certain themes

Repeating
What determines
These trails
Of fallen pillars

Achieving
Almost nothing
But a memory
Left to brag –

Wrong
Though easily missed
By men
Who have no wishes

But to leave
Their written legacies
Behind
As fading masks

And marks
Worth being etched
If only where
Few can see them

Like wreckage
Caught from history
Stuck within
Present tense

Where walls
Which bear their semblance
Are bound
To nearly crumble

And conceal
Such painted burdens
Under bricks
Of heaviest grief

Sad as it is
To say
That their triumph
Is our undoing

Building worlds
From pieces
When the rest
Are dead and gone.

– J. Pigno

Another day
Left in
Suspense

When waiting
Is silent
Commotion

Ushering
Such quiet
Distress

With whispers
Of doubt
On my mind –

Begging
Each sun
For a glance

So moons
Come quick
To reveal them

By terror
Of night
Which I gather

Is a waste
Of my time
If at best,

Clinging
This phone
Off the hook

Or wallowing
Idle
From sleepiness

Caught
At tips
Near my fingers

Which speak
Through keys
Out of spite.

Typing
This much needed
Rest

With limited
Means
Of expression

And words
Too many
To gather

Or remember
With hope
They are right –

As penance
Is always
So sad

Yet brutal
Where truth
Is its fiction

Of imagining
Outcomes
On paper

Where the answers
Are never
Enough.

– J. Pigno

We know
How this story
Concludes

Now it’s time
To write
The last sentence

Of a life
That was reared
In phrases

And remembered
So briefly
With words,

As others
Will hardly
Resist

Abiding
By lies
Less exclusive

Of interests
Common
And wasting

What talents
They may
Never seek –

Unlike
Dreams
Of my own

Which speak
As terms
Everlasting

From drudgery
Far less
Defining

Than the beauty
Of art
Meant to touch.

Beyond
How worlds
Do insist

We pursue
Such hurt
Detrimental

In packages
Deemed
Our successes

Or triumphs
As vain
As that choice

For delivering
Knives
As a gift

When inflicting
Wounds
By our message

That idleness
Packaged
As worship

Is the meaning
Our hearts
Do betray –

To find
That role
Worth a chance

And seeking
God
Within reason

Till the need
To feel
Becomes lethal

And expression
Martyrs
Our wills,

Binding fate
To our
Tales

As the legacy
Beckons
To kill us

Despite
Those smiles
We’re showing

As death
Begins
It’s approach.

No,
Im constantly
Saved

By the verse
Which still
Goes wnwritten

As I face
This blankness
Before me

Knowing faith
Is that period
End.

– J. Pigno

God
Changes space
But man
Uses knowledge
To leverage
Simple phrases
And tilt
His perfect Earth

Erecting
Minor heavens
From stone
He chooses wisely
Drawing fates
In marble
And erecting
Pillars weak

Expecting
Steady worlds
From the line
He draws unfinished
Which wobbles
Atop his daydream
Askwew
With fallen means

Twisting
Faultless strings
Of this tethered
Cosmic genius
Undone
At its center
When imagining
Better knots.

– J. Pigno

Really
I’m not worth much
But a show
Of empty fingers
And palms face up
So telling
Of hands too cold
To feel

This broken brand
Of sad
In spirit but also
Reason
Where loss
That matters greatly
Is just my kind
Of hurt

When roads
I walk to work
Are chessboards
Of disaster
Waiting now
To happen
Each time
I cross this street

Imagining
Easy outs
Or playing fate
With stoplights
As the morning
Gives no answer
Or truth
I care to seek

Wandering
Into traffic
Or staring down
These buses
Which tell me
Keeping purpose
Is a useless task
For chumps

The ones
Who can’t believe
This all might be
Called nothing
To a God
Who dangles pleasures
Along lines
Of give and takes

And run me down
So bold
Without even
Having questions
Of a life
They’d take regardless
If the car had hit
Or not

To prove
It’s just some game
Beyond
What man can measure
Or control
Within these senses
Limited
As his scope

While the wind
Just seems to pass
And carries me
Even further
Toward a dream
That’s unrelenting
And impossible
As that gift

Shaking off
This dust
From the filth
Of city mornings
And urban lie
Called order
Peddled
Like special dirt

Allowing
One more chance
For seconds
Becoming minutes
Over hours
Eaten slowly
To make prisoners
Of us all

Forgetting
Partial deaths
Or suicides
Called commuting
Are miracles
Begging difference
And rebellion
From this lie

Though to most
I’m just a nut
Or a “fag”
With no ambitions
Scared of
Growing older
And alone
As well deserved

Wishing
Art was proof
That vehicles
And their dangers
Are conquered
By my visions
And desire
To break free

Though I hope
It just can change
As much as prayer
Is futile
Or evidence
Of conviction
Among desperate hearts
Who wait

Hollow
As I am
During bouts
Of sheer depression
Staring at
Angry drivers
I believe
Know more than me.

– J. Pigno

My fear
Of traumatic events
Is the gift
Which leads me
To them,

Bridging
What little leeway
Exists between
Panic
And death –

Keeping things
Very tense
And feeding
Such anxious
Feelings

No matter
How rare
Or infrequent
Each experience
Happens to be.

Making me
Lose my cool
And swerve
When driving
Erratic,

Believing this heart
To be failing
While begging
Thin air
For a breath.

Rushing
With fear
To stay calm
And checking my pulse
In this mirror,

Thinking that end
Is impatient
As color
Escapes
From my face.

Learning
I’m probably safe
If only
For the briefest
Of seconds,

So my pulse
Returns
To normal
And this ride
Resumes once more –

Forever
Into unknowns
And tomorrows
Beyond
Fair reasons

Or certainties
Left imbalanced
By the prospect
Of varying
Fates.

Mortal
Though hardly sane
For ones
Still willing
To witness

Such fleeting
And weak securities
Transient
And wrongly
Assumed.

– J. Pigno

I don’t deserve
A good woman
Because real men
Are intended
To work

Doing things
Hard yet beautiful
And struggling
Each day
For their kin

Cracking
Thick folds
In their hands
When building lives
Out of branches

Where stones and bricks
Aren’t suited
To homes
That are crafted
From strength

Allowing them
Truth
In their sweat
Like honest drops
Of distinction

With hours
Written as creases
Across jagged
Lines
On their face

Where besides him
She eternally
Waits
Resting her hand
On his shoulders

As he bears
That weight
Of survival
If only to have her
Once more

Unlike
Some have been
Called
To commit themselves
To misfortune

Kneeling
At thrones
Of their muses
Who inspire hurt
Which creates

Providing them
Soulful reprieve
From loneliness
Trailing
Each sentence

As it enters
Hearts
Of those readers
Smart enough
Never to judge

For most
Can’t possibly see
This weight
Of inflicted
Decisions

And emptiness
Drawn from abandon
Which accompanies
Burdens
Called waste

These poems
I’ve sworn
Cannot beg
For pleasures I’ve learned
Are elusive

But merely
Capture their essence
As I slowly
Die
From their words

Like the husband
I never will be
As the answer
Inside
Has been written

By a goddess
Whose kiss
Evoked passions
Since the day
I lusted for verse

Guiding me
Further
Towards God
Or woman within
Who I worship

Carrying faith
As her witness
To a message
Not normal
But fair

That comfort
And wealth
Isn’t hope
Or a sliver of truth
As expected

To ones
Who are chosen
For greatness
And loved by an angel
Which waits

Destroying
All hopes
For a chance
Of having such bliss
As depicted

In marriages
Warm
And convincing
That worthy
Is never this phrase.

– J. Pigno

I’ve got
No blood to lose
Or carry
These feelings stifled
Across my body
Rotting
From ambitions
Stunted with waste

Decaying
As idle sickness
Festers
With aching passions
Destroying
Rebel tissues
While dangerously
Making me wait

Forcing
This startled hand
By fears
And bile building
Into killing
Such written medicines
After willing
My own demise

Numbing
This only cure
To remedy deaths
Experienced
Within dreams
So utterly nauseous
They demand
Reality wakes

Out of answers
Caked in shit
Or potentials
Laced with vomit
And necessities
Detrimental
Like the illness
Called our lives –

For terms
Are just disease
And claims
Of deadening tissues
Consuming hopes
Around me
As they beckon
Imminent death

Gangrened
Without choice
Or the proof
Of God unwilling
To confirm
His final miracle
Which raises flesh
From pits

Leaving things
Still unknown
To create that art
Resilient
Which begs
For keeping relevant
Before my time
Can pass.

– J. Pigno