serotinal

the warmth flees above my head on two wings and an itinerary i’m left to question. was hope held steady-handed or burst breathlessly through the gate secure in the knowledge i’d not be boarding. stuck up my nose the stench of fresh cut grass but no one seems to grieve these corpses. oh, they’ll come back, so the blade makes it painless and easy to wait on what has been taken to fill back in. days expire quicker now, this turn of my heart more prickled than before. but i’ve long sleeves in case faith dips at night along with the common sense to realize my bourbon and booze will not run out quicker than you have. this pocket of charm i sit in, full of rubbing legs and soulful beaks, does its best to remind me it will all be just fine. and who am i to question their wisdom. so i raise my snifter first to air then to this awful nothing that’s been nesting my chest. i swear even the leaves turn their backs to my eyes now. deep within what moves me, i know a bleak winter awaits. another sip, another more. i close my lids to the jets i am not aboard and the slow rounding logic shorn things sometimes grow back greater.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

boardwalk

slowly i say goodbye to summer, to the sheen of sun slipping down limbs and to hopeful magenta brushstrokes across september sky, whimsical reminders we can find our way back. so it begs to be asked back to what, the sparkle and glimmer of your mind, the lazy low tide of your thoughts or the shoals that keep secrets begging to be gathered before the fickle moon employs its pull. if you were a shell i’d hold you to my ear and wait until you collapsed into my name like you used to do. but we’re both split between personalities and circumstance and veils and truth be told i’m nearing my thinnest. i want you spread across me like sunscreen. i want you atop me like tan into my pores. it hurts that just as your fingers drag along my burning notions you turn jack frost again. as if i haven’t suffered long enough i now dread the same slow turning of the leaves. it seems a long time ago i was handed three darts for five dollars to go win a prize. now still with the taste of vanilla ice cream and warm waffles spun like a ferris wheel at the back of my throat, i can watch the season shift coldly away and you can go on throwing holes into my heart for free.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

grievous

steady hands but the keener eye spots the tremble straight off. there’s no shame in a spot of liquid courage. the fallacy is that it keeps muscles from reverberating. truth is it rids the shit from the stench of giving less than anything that was ever returned. to some degree i love you all but you’ve given me nothing worth collecting save for painful life lessons and a bitter aftertaste from the karma leaked down from my head. i won’t miss any of you. there’s crumpled photographs and empty envelopes and christmases full of sitting at a table feeling i was april fools. clearly it explains why i chose rabbit holes to stain my palms and took comfort against the dismissive cool of a bottle. comfort finds you through the seduction of understanding, which is why a whore will win your world with a smile and a priest hurries along her last moan of redemption. there is something nothing short of utter anguish knowing i’ll pass on some day one half of my whole while no one remotely close to me ever recognized a fraction to the sum of my parts. do not cry for me. i’ll not allow my name on your tongue. understand this is all well thought out. the sinews quiver not from fear but the jolt of realization i am finally free of you all.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

excerpt from my book 'FROM MY FRONT STEPS'

'if i’m okay'

she’s having her first sleepover

i can feel her glow from down the block

she’s found a friend who accepts her as she is

it’s all i could ever ask for

a lesson i pray she learns

without my constant reminding

it’s hard being a father

trading football jersey for dolls

a stern tongue for princess voices

and i’d be a liar if i said i wasn’t a bit sad

and i’d be a liar if i said i won’t consult

the stuffed animals lining her bed tonight

hoping they’ll ask in inflections i impersonate

if i’m okay.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

excerpt from my book 'FROM MY FRONT STEPS' 

'thunder'

when i was a little boy

my mother told me

thunder was only the sound

of angels bowling overhead

so when i hear it now

i laugh with the thought

we’re all on one big alley

wearing miscolored shoes. 

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com 

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

'the forgotten phase'

the country closed tight

though like an old whore

some parts insist on parting open

accepting the dime but not the dollar

common sense priceless and drying in jars

moonshine gone the way of lemonade

and the sober guzzle it

while the drunks measure the fingers

clinging inside the glass

laughing cause they get it—

the hard stuff lends the buzz

but reality is what’ll get ya—

with swimming heads they toast the drowning

knowing thru abandoned hearts

they trained for the marathon

not the race.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com 

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

elopement

so this is it

the guests have gone

the way unattended

no one to witness

your first dance

did you sweep away

your lack of rsvps

along with

your growing return of regrets

they were released, you know

doves to sky, or rice

so cliché

the old italian man

grips the broom and in my accent

your love has been like wahter

always running.

we shared the same vision once

billowing white draperies

ghosts to air in our beach villa

and i’ve clutched your spirit since

and you’ve fled our vision

like wahter.

so this is it

no one to hear your heels skipping

save the old italian man

his broom keeping cadence.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

'self-analysis'

figure yourself the fuck out.

i can’t do it for you.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com 

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

'you knew shit until me'

so accustomed you were

to the frill, the grandeur

so accustomed to sparkle

the hollow repetition

of delicacies;

you never saw me coming;

you never knew i

existed at all;

truths long denied

now stain you;

gentle love atop your bed

traded for a hard fuck

against the wall.

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com 

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.

'thunder'

it’s thunderously quiet in this dark.

the truth is that no matter how much

i tell myself i am better off without you

i’m not. 

#barflypoet

#josephapinto

www.josephpinto.com 

© Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved.

*

Poetry served to you raw and unedited from the moment crafted;

all poetry is older work and chosen at random unless otherwise noted.

*

'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon.