Oh dear God,
I am wrong –
Can this poem
Excuse
Any punishment?

Is an empty phrase
So revolting
That suffering
Becomes
What it needs?

My faith insists
There are rules
Behind
Each line
That will kill us,

Governing
How harsh
We feel sentenced
Which in turn
Expresses truth best –

And here’s how sin
Offers proof
For artistry
Raw
As intended,

By fear exposed
Bearing witness
To flaws
Well-known
Where they thrive

By doubtful lies
Reason sells
When divinity
Seems
More conceited

Than another
Mad soul
Sharing secrets
Hoping heaven
Ignores bitter words.

Some terms
Bring calamities down
Upon
Whose pen
Dare deny them –

Just more bad press
Against everything
Honest
But remotely
Obscene.

• J. Pigno

Even now
I feel often judged
For the fear that God
Truly hates us
And shows such love
Through abandon
When those who believe
Suffer most

By a numbness grown
Through defeat
And suggestions wrong
As depicted
When experience proves
Every answer
Leaves examples made
Out of hurt

Meaning willingness
Just doesn’t work
With its open heart
Too afflicted
Or disasters rife
Always present
Being commonly seen
Where we pray

On those days if joy
Runs away
Worried how much pain
Is expected
Knowing offset costs
Closely follow
By destroying scenes
Duly paid

Since expensive sins
Run their tab
Over smiling lives
Behind cameras
Ruining moments spent
Chasing memories
From our tainted pasts
Never far

Until having hope
Seems unfair
While heaven exploits
Human weakness
Still out there sad
Needing comfort
That existence rests
In His hands.

• J. Pigno

This body just
Won’t let me heal
Despite how much
It might linger
With these taunts
Of limitless symptoms
Ignored by those
Who should help

But still can’t
Despite playing God
Fooling desperate men
Who must worship
Any dollar made
Through such pretense
Claiming science
Has justified greed

When our agony
Feels more at home
Than attempts they fake
Showing kindness
From instilling fear
Like injections
Soon collecting checks
After that

All for nothing
And being sent home
Seeming gaslit now
Every second
While claiming again
“He’s so anxious”
As their way
To always dismiss

What illness prompts
Seeing truth
Behind taboo lines
Never questioned
Knowing honest help
Doesn’t settle
If believing
Answers exist

Since today
Is promising hell
Yet tomorrow
Hides every heaven
Beyond easy pills
And misjudgments
Where that emptiness
Always awaits.

• J. Pigno

Can we give this a go
Without pain
Just one more time
Before leaving
By recalling life’s
Bitter blessings
And forgetting
How bad its become

Though our hearts
Miss having their chance
As tomorrow’s light
Depicts shadows
Of an unfair dream
Unobtainable
On walls inside
Where we sleep,

Casting doubts
Like shapeless attempts
From each morning sun
Begging difference
Despite years grown ill
After waiting
Too long for change
Which escapes

When that promise
Eludes every hope
Being faultless
Despite feeling guilty
Or sharing fates
So eternal
No death could slight
What they grasp.

Even trapped
Such poetry speaks
Between soulmates lost
Behind windows
Whose hands held tight
Cannot leverage
While believing
Freedom exists,

Far away
Among open worlds
Hearing music
Distantly playing
How such saddest songs
Deserve repeats
Letting love
Speak lyrics again.

• J. Pigno

The honor
In not being heard
Is acceptance
Of feeling irrelevant
And bestowed with guilt
Out of willingness
To not matter much
Though I try

Until poetry
Never quite falls
Like miraculous stars
Become lazy
Now seized by hands
After hitting
That ground so old
Losing worth

Searching sands
For remnants intact
Where soulless rocks
Replace meteors
Which once held truths
Shining brighter
Than their nightly skies
Grown obscured

Over deserts
That widen from age
Fearing empty dunes
Replace meaning
Or cavernous holes
Consume pretense
In an honest maw
Lacking voice

When few ears
Are listening still
Though some eyes
Catch glimpses apparent
But are often missed
Despite staring
Beyond endless voids
Seeming vague

Unless living
Such subtle defeat
Under open words
Hiding chasms
How this visible rift
Left between them
Has always been
So ignored.

• J. Pigno

Yes it’s true
How demons exist
Despite how much
We refuse this
Still until our sleep
Sees them dancing
With a skeleton’s arm
Holding tight

Felt around each waist
As we waltz
Much realer than day
Could imagine
Where night brings truth
Even stranger
Facing faithless crawls
Fear performs

When begging for God
To be wrong
And removed from view
Though uncertain
How any such soul
Remains sacred
Missing countless threats
Every turn

Like an illness
Creeping through skin
Underneath what flesh
Appears sinful
But is really sad
Seeking answers
Placing orders now
Buying peace

Finding joy online
Growing numb
By effortless tasks
After working
Making nothing again
Getting tired
Just living alone
Needing rest

Learning devils
Disintegrate dreams
Killing hopeful thoughts
While they happen
During evenings
Waking up screaming
Heaven’s lies
Will always forget.

• J. Pigno

Long gone
Are the days of Dylan
When records
Would spin so eternal,

Hearing words foretold
By lost prophets
Whose poetry dies
With that dream –

A distinguished cause
Come undone
Thinking worlds could stop
From such singing,

Fearing soon
Most never will listen
Despite sounding good
As it fails

How this audience
Learned to ignore
Each meticulous line
Spelling visions

After youths spent wrong
Feigning interest
Growing hard inside
Chasing work.

Now bohemians
Hide behind jobs
Or appear insane
Growing sicker,

Fighting empty lives
Still suppressing
What our vinyl
Preached all before –

True resistance
Falling on art
Through deliberate acts
Seeming crazy,

Like adulthood
Murdered in progress
Since maturity
Gave nothing back.

For nostalgia
Carries much more
Than reality claims
Being present,

Playing anthems
Yesterday offers
Once again
Until we feel whole.

• J. Pigno

Here comes
Another bad year
As the hands of time
Always tremble
At what shattered wish
Seems determined
Like potential change
Never sought

Or old promises
Feeling so new
Until that plan
Meets our mirrors
Where each limit waits
Staring blankly
Still back towards those
Showing age

Since breaking that glass
Over clocks
Replaced by eyes
On straight faces
Hiding sickness
Behind every smile
Knowing destiny
Coughs when it must

Letting tragedy
Settle us down
Holding weddings
Or having some babies
Watching pain rust souls
Getting older
Not happier
Though they protest

Missing youth
And freedom unknown
While tomorrow’s debt
Grows uncertain
Though elusive
Beneath better bodies
Seeking chances still
To escape

For bohemian dreams
Are just thoughts
Hidden in sleep
Hearing exes
Telling you once
About poems
Being everything wrong
Until now.

• J. Pigno

I am nothing
Without what is said
In this flowing phrase
Effervescent
As a stream which moves
Against meaning
Too empty for souls
Who can swim

Like waters alive
From belief
And deliberate dreams
Merely pushing
Through bubbling joys
So inspired
By our sparkling hopes
Fighting back

Still despite how fear
Trickles down
Where gravity pulls
Easy currents
Soon following brooks
Along hillsides
Even God must climb
Needing help

Till our art comes close
Floating near
High above those rocks
Weighing heavy
Always blocking verse
Aiming upwards
Since poetry treads
Seeking truths

Using beauty
Defying that lie
When ascending heights
Seeming natural
If such steep inclines
Present obstacles
Only honest words
Could resist

Like cascading tears
Which reverse
Turning every fall
Into evidence
Of divine intent
We’re expressing
While creation
Does all the rest.

• J. Pigno