So what of this
Lonely end
I keep hearing
Will happen
Real soon?

Perhaps
Its our awesome
Blessing
Where peace
Is an airless breath.

Like a letdown
Easily faced
Despite
Such life
Left willing

Inside us
Fighting for answers
Tired
We’ve waited
Too long

With lingering fears
Unfair
Which prey
On sympathies
Rattled

By minds
Still wishing
Daily
Their time may
Eventually pass,

As they face
Those visions scared
Knowing somehow
Dreams
Don’t happen

While ignoring
Germs inside them
In that moment
Faith
Should come

Long enough
When prayers unheard
Become chills
And fevers
Holy

Proving hope
Beyond God’s heaven
Aren’t cures
But further
Ills

Where existence
Loses steam
More than lungs
Who’ve found
Sick pleasure

Sucking smoke
Through empty vessels
Till machines
Make torture
Last

Watching worlds
Fall at His feet
Seeing kingdoms
Cough up
Chances

Choosing sin
Upon destruction
Learning death
Was love
Enough.

– J. Pigno

This drum
Which will not cease
Is the death
I long to suffer
From heartbeats
Out of rhythm
That fear
Has proven strong

With its pacing
Missing cues
As discordant waves
Develop
Throwing fits
Inside my body
So innate
Disruption builds

Though unnoticed
During days
Voices drown
Pain’s poor percussion
Screaming poems
Over dangers
While I’ve little
Left to say

Despite anguish
Breaking through
Speaking volumes
By obsession
Yielding music
Much less scary
When in fact
Fate often lurks

Behind ballads
Softly played
Amid memories
Hushed and muddled
Waiting daily
For disaster
Dancing blindly
Losing breath

Telling God
His song resounds
Even if these lyrics
Struggle
To convey
My deepest hardship
Read aloud
But still unheard.

– J. Pigno

The rain fell
In my sleep
Where I’ve dreamed
So long
Of living

Despite
What nightmare
Waited
Outside these eyes
Held shut

Where each daylight
Showered dust
Bearing heat
Which felt
Like scratches

Amid sunshine
Raining ashes
Down from clouds
Whose sky
Was scorched

Touting flames
With sharpest tongues
Claiming God
Preferred we
Suffer

Under brightness
Speaking judgments
Proving demons
Won
His war

While no angel
Worth her weight
Ever saw
Those lies
Defeated

When our hopes
Remained in ruins
Straying far
Away
Through fear

Watching flares
Spill burning tears
With their sparks
That dropped
Derision

Upon faces
Still too arid
For redemption
Moist
And just

By assuming
Darkest storms
Fared much better
Than
Old worries

Against cinders
Smoking gently
Between evenings
Lost
On grief

Learning water
Almost gone
Won’t replenish
Come
New morning

Facing choices
Hardly wagered
Despite answers
Dry
But real

Left deciding
Fates unknown
Every night
Since we
Surrendered

To existence
Now forgotten
After waking
Death
So warm.

– J. Pigno

She said
I was now
Her enemy

And perhaps
That hurt me
Most –

Knowing
This heart
Couldn’t handle

Anymore beats
That should
Skip

Out of learning
The worst
Isn’t death

But assuming
Fear
All around it

Preserves
What life
Can betray us

Faster
Than breath
Should escape,

From lungs
Whose air
Is belief

Each symptom
Felt
May distinguish

Between
These senses
Deluded

By panic
Or dread
Without cause.

Since friends
Are forever
Some curse

Holding times
Too dear
For forgetting

Within
Both hands
Put together

Aiming blame
Like guns
At our heads,

Confirming
Love doesn’t
Last

When parents
Raise
Little children

As thorns
Not blossoms
Excited

To share
Such flowers
They bloom.

– J. Pigno

I’m even
Running from dreams
On the days
Which follow
Phantoms

Into heartbreak
Self-inflicted
By what fear
My symptoms
Show

When remembering
Life went wrong
Each time
These thoughts
Should wander

Since my body
Tells of torment
Bravely speaking
If it
Shakes

With wildly
Flailing limbs
Sharing stories
Few
Would mention

Or believe
Their rightful duty
To express
For those
Who break

Like chest pains
Without cause
As my pulse
Spikes
Every morning

Rising quickly
Out of wailing
During showers
I once
Loved

Seeing mom there
At her edge
Sitting quietly
Near my
Bedside

While that constant
Blank expression
Suggests blame
More sad
Than death

Where forever
Grows so black
And my wedding
Just doesn’t
Happen

Resting empty
Outside being
In a place
No warmth
Exists

Or these words
Affirming love
Saying sorry
For such
Anguish

Still believing
God is waiting
Despite nights
My sleep
Says no.

– J. Pigno

What will I do
With my time
Now that
There isn’t
Any?

Perhaps
Just sit complacent
Jotting poems
If they
Come

While believing
Life may end
Dreaming words
Whose lines
Are comfort

Still surprised
How hours linger
On behalf
Of meaning
Lost

To this hurt
Which mustn’t wait
For some cure
No man
Can fathom

Calling strength
True twisted healing
Without prayer
Some think
As weak,

Though its not
The drug they seek
Or that pill
Such doctors
Promise

Missing faith
In long equations
Balanced only
By our
Fears

Wishing death
Undue delays
Judging God
Like ancient
Magic

Despite answers
Often summoned
From intent
Once chasing
Proof –

Yet instead
Remains unseen
Gifting grace
Beyond
Old shadows

Casting doubt
Upon dark faces
Choosing daylight
Be their
Veils

So each moment
Seems sincere
Growing brighter
Since
Those questions

Might persist
Outside existence
Known by artists
As new
Birth

Feeling blessed
This morning bleeds
Thudding heartbeats
And brief
Pauses

Between headaches
Hope has murdered
Knowing heaven
Can be
Said

Where defeat
Is not unique
Like each symptom
Fate may
Worship

Turning phrases
Into conquest
Via stories
We leave
Here.

– J. Pigno

The light we seek
Is false
As it only leaves us
Wanting
For a moment
Eternally lasting
With safeties
Held in place

Unlike darkness
Since provoked
By that gimmick
Claimed enticing
Ever transient
Through illusion
Of what peace
Just doesn’t stand

As this air
Flees from our lungs
Wasting lifetimes
Soon escaping
Beyond capture
Chasing seconds
Now elapsing
With each breath

Losing days
On simple chores
Missing years
No man remembers
Finding God
Their humble servant
To what numbers
Plague His gift

And demand
We mustn’t sin
Showing protest
If resisting
Such deliberate
Modes of conduct
Deemed befitting
Without chance

Any hope
Should then exist
Praying doubt
Inspires anger
Letting passion
Cast some shadow
Over reason
Proven wrong

Since assuming
Faith can cure
Any danger
Within bodies
Caught between
Two worlds conflicted
Trusting souls
Before our flesh

Where this earth
Is all we face
When these feelings
Only matter
Praying symptoms
Start abating
Staying hurt
But still relieved.

– J. Pigno