Tag: poem

By on

Why do I keep
Wearing crosses
When religion
Has abandoned phrases
If poems speak
Soulless verses
Wishing my pen
Still believed?

Goddamnit,
No one can hear me.

Jesus Christ,
These reasons for dying

Still appear
Along pages scrolling
So the world can read
As it texts,

Lacking notice
Or feelings considered

Through fear
Their fingers have motioned

By virtue of faith
Ever missing
Ignoring truth
With each click.

Perhaps, we all should
Sport cellphones

Rather than symbols
Most sacred
Around those necks
Leaning forward,

Praying answers
Await us online.

This media
Is an infinite hole
Where hopeless words
Remain floating
Between portals
Recycling torment
Through pictures
And videos lost –

Every daydream
Gaining exposure,

Catching demons
Tempting attentions,

Where agony shown
Becomes content
Our depression thinks
Deserves more.

People never ask,

“How can he write
If better words
Always will linger,
Despite trying
While clutching at idols
Who prefer other charms
Over yours?”

  • J. Pigno

By on

The hours
Stare me down
Eyeing hands
Forever counting

While such little time
Grows stagnant
Getting lost
Between each tick

Like these moments
Looking back
Swallowed whole
Within those seconds

As cheap pauses
Measuring wishes
Go to waste
While sleeping still –

Finding fears
In naked dreams,
Greeting nightmares
Once complacent,

Waking up now
Far too early
As I anticipate
Morning’s glare

For another chance
Chasing death
While God’s medicine
Keeps things balanced

Swallowing tablets
Made from daylight
Though they fade
Before dusk comes.

All have gained
This spiritual weight
Carrying weakness
On our stomachs,

Holding souls
Against their natures
Seeking freedoms
Goodness craves –

Tethered close
Without much room
Lacking space
Expression covets

Knowing greed
Or human hunger
Will devour
Empty roles,

Since most jobs
Abandon hope
Using skills
Employing pressure

So tomorrow’s fate
Uncertain
Inches closer
Than we think.

Yes it’s true
Most had enough
Trying hard
Remaining silent,

But instead
Through repetition
Going crazy
Seems preferred.

  • J. Pigno

By on

That gift
Sits below my wrist,

Left obvious
Despite her absence,

After breaking now
Before mending
What beads
Still remain intact –

Counting sins
Aligned like charms
Across these strings
We’ve woven
Where tested knots
Prove tightest
Pulling cords
With every curse

And heated words
Which tear
Those twisted lives
Left tangled
Below these fingers
Restless
For the hands that once
Clasped back,

Seeking reason
To sport this cuff

Or get back up
Lacking worry

As another day
Misses your presence
Reminded by palms
Showing wear.

Those symbols
Hiding our scars
Gain merit
Through daily usage

Facing waves
Of frequent erosion
Much how life
Endures such pain,

Placing ornaments
Over each wound
So injuries earned
Provide meaning
Through countless scuffs
Upon metal
Holding wooden spheres
Along threads.

Some bracelets
Last beyond death
Even if their bindings
Sever
While being used
During lifetimes
Where wars were waged
Winning trust –

Triumphant
Merely in length,

But adorning
Damages taken

Finding beauty
Shimmering brightly
For a time
Only real love shines.

  • J. Pigno

By on

No hero
Should run and hide
When the villain
Becomes their shadow
But engage
Those reflected demons
To translate fear
Into hope

As they shape
What legends believe
All worthy change
Isn’t judgment
When mirrors break
Throwing punches
Likes stones we cast
Fighting back –

Each shattered piece
Cutting deep
So every scar
Provides reasons
For claiming hate
Without purpose
Or drawing lines
Between friends,

Worried peace
Means dreaming alone
While surrounded now
By accusers
Whose obvious threat
Peddles justice
Through riotous words
Left unchecked.

How such ignorance
Carries out crimes
More than hearsay
Buries our innocence
Since sinfulness
Echoing arrogance
Chisels gravestones
Gaining applause –

These monuments
Most will forget
Yet eternally cast
Upon victims
Over nothing
Obscuring importance
Behind faces
Listening less.

This world needs art
That ignores
Such countless lives
Keeping silent,
Proving valiance
Spoken expression
Which dares defy
Every risk

Most poets learn
Donning capes
Sporting phrases
Dangerously honest –
Tempting failures
Only forgiven
If God Himself
Offers strength.

  • J. Pigno

By on 2 Comments

Reality
Doesn’t make sense
When life itself
Is a program
Like another game
Based entirely
On perfection lost
Long ago –

Our divinity
Digitally drawn
Leaving hands obsessed
With discoveries
Which find us
Retracing patterns
Never forwards
But stuck in reverse,

As fingers type
Writing laws
Over loops that lead
Towards confusion
From equations posed
Needing answers
But inventing gods
Undefined

Since staring still
At these screens
Seems our liturgy learned
From inception
Watching parents slave
Behind keyboards
Thinking miracles
Can be reset.

This sacrifice
Simulates ease
While boredom waits
Fearing silence,
Feeling right
Until we have noticed
Today has passed
Between texts –

Gaining levels
Expertly played
Before heroes die
Facing riddles
Such numbered moves
Employ daily
Forcing mystery
Where there is none.

How happiness
Shadowed by doubt
Lacking save points
Holding my progress
Proves experience
Fabricates meaning
During chapters
Worthily failed.

  • J. Pigno

By on 2 Comments

How happiness
Steals our words
In ways no pain
Can fathom
While boredom
Removes all reason
For existing
Beyond this pen,

As suffering
Nourishes faith
To elicit
Substantial purpose
Which provides us
Colorful language
Only passion
Could ever evoke

Since conjuring
Something real
Across each page
In waiting
Means creating verse
Bearing substance
If the feelings prove
Too strong.

Even fantasies
Always agree
That losing sleep
Is required
So bleeding out
Becomes special
And reality
Smothers each dream,

Waking up
Besides more threats
Making daylight
An enemy gleaming
Choosing sunshine
Over more darkness
Leaving tragedy
Easily seen.

Trauma lives
Through loves unfair
Like breath long gone
During kisses
Building phrases
Upon those moments
Quickly passing
Without much thought,

Failing senses
Fleeting at best
Disconnecting now
From forever
Held between these joys
Growing empty
Among chapters
Writing themselves

By meeting lies
Creeping close
Behind poems
Such comfort excuses
Pushing fallen truths
Beneath footsteps
Treading honesty
Thinner than glass.

  • J. Pigno

By on 8 Comments

All I want
Is to be acknowledged
In the ways
Sincerity dictates
Through thoughtfulness
Shown by discretion
To discern
My words as true –

These vestiges
Learned by mistake,
Hearing ghosts speak
Intimate wisdoms,

Leaving trails
Along crumpled up pages
Beneath desks
Where agony sits

And takes this form
Given flesh
By inadequate means
Always dreaming
For better release
They’ve inspired
Till escape seems real
When it fails.

Each triumph
Besides that wish
Leaves lingering fears
Never questioned,

Only doubts
Now fostered entirely,

Trading stares
Between faces grown old.

How success
Will never prove earned
While boredom builds
Over decades
Spending idle time
Watching reruns
Of another day
Lived so wrong,

Not maturing
Despite those wills
Or protests stood
Writing brashly
But playing fate
Chasing muses
No God worth love
Would employ.

Let’s admit
Such dangerous expressions
Are an excess gift
Best kept secret,

Hiding shyly
Behind closed bindings
Within studies
Souls never see –

Hidden tomes
Amid libraries lost,
Merely begging
Those eyes which wander

Like lines whose phrases
Sit there

Praying soon
Validation comes.

  • J. Pigno

By on

People will
Often pick sides
When they’re never
Easily taken
Without learning
Lines drawn distinctly
Become what shapes
We have feared,

Facing swiftly
Partisan rules
And agendas backed
By divisions
For causes made
Spewing hatreds
Like laws obsessed
With defeat –

For both parties
Trading their blows
Thinking answers grow
From exclusions
While its us against them
Always fighting
But ignoring flesh
All the same

If you really look
Beyond glares
Into eyes so deep
Hiding damage
Or past whose lives
Seem more varied
Than circumstance
Wrongly suspects.

I acknowledge
Difference is real
Though emphasis
Placed on experience
Can bridge those gaps
Needing context
To alleviate
Distances shared

Which begins new trust
Felt unsure
Losing privileges
Marring perspective
Building platforms
Over expanses
Very vast
Where questions remain,

Despite newsmen
Peddling answers
Through big networks
Garnering ratings
Choosing barriers
Offering voices
Making noise
That blocks out our own.

Only chaos
Assumes every change
Should follow rage
Still accepted
Asking families
Facing each other
Why progress
Must not forget.

  • J. Pigno

By on

I’m afraid
This isn’t me
Or perhaps
Some sudden reflection
Of what fear can build
Through chaos
Knowing perfection
Doesn’t exist,

As appearances
Speak their truths
When our souls
Remain too silent
Like these agonies
Told by signals
On new clothes
And shortened hair –

That strange image
Staring back
While we gasp
Before wet mirrors
Within bathrooms
Steamed from showers
So damn hot
We hope they kill,

Feeling off
But looking right
If ignoring those
Who tell us
Every subtle change
Has meaning
More important
Than perceived.

This whole image
Just seems wrong
Though appropriate
Since agreeing
With old demons
Judging shadows
Casting figments
For real men

Among masses
Most will gauge
Still believing
First impressions
Yet neglecting
Better pictures
Told with words
All actions tell.

There is safety
Standing out
Watching fashion
Hide afflictions
Every mental wound
Has festered
Over years
Spent insecure,

Seeing small flaws
Become big
Letting flesh
Fixate regardless
Cutting strands
Off smiling faces
Only proving
Style screams.

  • J. Pigno

By on

I’m pretending
Days don’t pass
To stall what meaning
Dwindles
As it fades
From hours begging
Such short minutes
Find some hope

Lasting only
For what seems fast

When in truth
Reality lingers

Beyond bodies
Always failing
With each dream
Our suffering takes

Doing tasks
Through gasping breaths

Making chores
Of empty spaces

While enduring
Boredom evident
By this fact all faith
Should yield

Under pressures
Measuring lengths
Easy gods
Have called successes

Purely hateful
Though still raging
Against freedoms
Time does hold

Fearing nothing
But men’s laws

Pressing rules
Upon forever

Pitting duty
Against divinity
Losing trust
Between both worlds.

How does waiting
Seem more fair
Than experience
Idly wasted

Immaterial
Though oddly finite

Proving boundaries
Nature’s joke?

Passion thrives
Where doubt recedes
Deeming worry
Inexplicable

Falsely gauged
Among expressions
Swearing feelings
Keep us whole.

Life’s real mystery
Promising death
Knows now art
Outwits extinction

Like those limits
Science has worshipped

Becoming gospel
Inevitably preached.

  • J. Pigno