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

Success
Is a futile pursuit
Letting needs
Bring permanent failure
No amount of work
Could diminish
Knowing what man
Can’t achieve

As time alone
Never humbles
Before our God
Merely watching
How fighting those clocks
Barely startles
Such science detached
By His rules

Still trying
Despite growing old
Angry change
Just makes it apparent
Over fleeting strides
Faking progress
Stalled after youth
Falls apart

Where brevity
Offers us strength
Since foreseeing rest
Always coming
Through looming death
Stringing transience
Like darkened stars
Always there

Across black skies
Hanging low
While this moment fades
Into dimness
Tracing that glow
Beyond reason
Towards meaningful hope
Heaven hides

Wishing life
Was eternally blessed
Chasing light
Now forever existing
Different than breath
Soon expired
Promised nothing
But the singular chance.

• J. Pigno

We call best years
Unimportant
In the eyes of those
Still ignoring
What miracles dwell
Between moments
So profoundly spent
They’re a blur

Like weekends lost
On arcade games
Or feasts so grand
Food keeps filling
Our famished souls
Merely hungry
For one more meal
Sharing laughs

At that restaurant
Coming back home
Where childhood thrills
Weren’t memories
But times so real
They went missing
Among fleeting gifts
Barely earned

Before just dreams
Hold their truth
Within each soul
Surely willing
If exploring realms
Rarely ventured
After growing old
Far too fast

When this present
Remains ever dull
And filled by fear
Always mounting
While expecting
Another bad reason
Giving purpose
To meaningless ends

Those questions
Killing through hope
Never really alive
Though pretending
How tomorrow’s threat
Appears better
Than escaping today
Going mad.

• J. Pigno

I’m just so
Fucking disgusted
By the man whose views
Have grown jaded
Since feeling deep down
Disappointed
Through such very beliefs
He held dear

With his actions now
Beyond hope
That startle those close
Merely baffled
After taking their turn
Seeing hatred
Spew from these wells
Getting filled

Over years spent cold
Mostly running
Or hiding at home
Where things festered
Not worried for work
But salvation
Lost in one day
Between screams

While yelling towards God
Nearly gone
Never hearing these calls
Amid tirades
Always absent there
Despite begging
How faith might prove
Demons wrong

Yet knowing someplace
Beauty lives
If flourishing well
Outside torment
Gathering still
Into clusters
Until darkness claims
Every word

When forgiveness
Hardly seems real
Despite few attempts
Seeking penance
Among verses strewn
Like confessions
Across each line
Left behind.

• J. Pigno

There is no pride
Always running
Despite how life
Will expire
Towards our certain end
Feeling selfish
Like having dreams
So unfair

For escaping death
While they last
In an endless race
Chasing smiles
During futile sprints
Gaining nothing
But miles between
Empty bliss

That promise relief
Never close
Even when sought
Very briefly
Just barely caught
Between moments
Finding this breath
Being held

And gasping still
Wearing out
From constant lengths
Getting trampled
Under tired feet
Losing traction
Where faith now slips
Underfoot

Wishing God can save
Beating hearts
If those rhythms break
Seeking solace
Across soulless days
Hardly savored
Discovering peace
Far too late

Letting humans waste
Learning not
How their own pursuits
Nearly kill us
But accepting fate
As survival
Competing against
Heaven’s clock.

• J. Pigno

Maybe this phase
Will soon dwindle
Since they say
Such pain is expected
After traumas like ours
Have proved nothing
But how time itself
Doesn’t heal

When warnings alone
Can’t prepare
Every single heart
From that damage
Which comes so fast
Upon hearing
That an illness looms
Overhead

Still stealing this hope
Out of morning
Through clouding blue skies
Despite trying
More failed attempts
At pretending
Some light remains
Close enough

If perhaps
We can figure things out
Merely wishing today
Held real sunshine
While raindrops crash
Against windows
Only you and me
Can now see

Where each empty wish
Demands sadness
Be put aside
For fake smiles
Just shown near those
Still believing
How normalcy waits
Soon beyond

What forever fate
God has written
Though His characters
Always will suffer
Whether good or bad
In their outcomes
Knowing innocence
Cannot return.

• J. Pigno

It makes sense
Things would end like this
On a 3 AM ride
Into silence
Down hallways dim
Growing longer
Hearing wheelchairs squeak
Underfoot

Where our quiet descent
Watching numbers
Allows more room
For my fearing
Of atomic gods
Which await me
As they count each floor
Towards despair

Even knowing mom’s there
Being tortured
Never falling asleep
While I’m missing
Besides that bed
Barely resting
Just seeing her kid
Fall apart

Yet knowing how age
Can’t sustain us
Or tomorrow’s grief
Remains looming
Since your only son
Was too fragile
For those harshest truths
Always sad

In their lives gone wrong
Without notice
During hopeful strength
Getting tested
Since they scan him now
Lacking purpose
Other than faith
Feeling hurt

By doubting God
Through his pain
Down corridors lost
Facing questions
No symptoms ask
Seeking answers
Finding nothing
But worlds come apart.

• J. Pigno