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

God must too
Be a loser –

For all beauty
Is born from His rejects,

Like impetuous words
I’ve forgotten,

Only drivel
To ones who don’t know

Or can’t ever recall
Through their eyes

How safety
Has murdered our instincts

By this burdened life
So devoted

No truth can flow
Out its lips.

Faith
Is a challenged fixation,

Some broken belief
Nearly failing,

Gaining new sight
Through the blindness

That rational doubt
Often brings.

Poetry
Keeps me detached.

Let its heaviest lines
Be reminders

Of one last fuck
Still remaining

Inside this soul
Weighted down.

• J. Pigno

An eternity
Grows in our midst
With each year like vines
Clinging gently
To this white wood porch
Where life settles
Watching souls climb up
Before dawn

Like a lifetime built
After sunrise
On some farmhouse lost
Between moments
Seeing God rail through
Blowing whistles
Driving trains right by
While we pray

Rocking back and forth
Like these angels
Trimming weeds from dirt
Still beneath us
Letting flowers bloom
Out of worship
Along paneled walls
Catching rays

Which enable faith
If there’s rain
Like those smallest seeds
Sprouting gospel
Knowing summer’s warmth
Stays eternal
Near that tiny ranch
Time forgets

Does exist right here
Despite fears
Or concerns with death
Bringing winter
Keeping hands inside
Near their fires
Until most can learn
Snow will melt

When agreeing warmth
Is one flame
Truly kindled now
Through believing
Such determined plants
Remain thriving
Since they realize
Seasons can pass.

• J. Pigno

I can’t think about
Places we’d go
Because being home
Is too painful
As the daydreams pass
Near that window
Staying here where life
Seems beyond

An experience
Silently known
Deep inside my soul
Always wishing
For another good shot
At remembering
How such youth once felt
Before this –

Inspiration caught
From afar
If vacations close
Couldn’t cut it
When demanding hope
Bring you further
Like what lovers dance
While they can,

Though romantic scenes
Beckon faith
So these words flow swift
Out of envy
Hearing music play
Right before us
Watching poems start
All around,

Taking chances
Fearlessly sought
And defiant through bliss
Giving meaning
Since rebellion yields
Better answers
Along each lost road
Artists seek

Under desperate woes
Bearing down
Upon heaviest hearts
Beating weakly
Worried death may come
Very quickly
Ruining one last time
To exist.

• J. Pigno

It’s been a good turn
Rolling dice
Though the pain plays out
With each gamble
After losing face
Winning sickness
When the rest still live
While I rot

Since my trade-off
Paying fate’s debt
By what sins have killed
Through example
Are unfortunate words
Still unnoticed
Like those cards so weak
They must fold

Until sadness
Offers one break
At repentance blind
Making wagers
Still sulking alone
Behind tables
Taking risks too dumb
For one man

That expresses
Another bad hand
In pursuing dreams
Never triumphed
Unless God Himself
Defies limits
Yielding hope now pushed
Beyond chance

Counting empty draws
As full suites
Or ignoring rules
Switching numbers
Against mounting odds
Ruining moments
You could never enjoy
Betting fear

But can somehow choose
Writing lines
Where suffering breeds
Fascination
Beneath morbid stakes
Poets offer
Indulging whims
Always raw.

• J. Pigno