‘rake’   it’s the way she collects me when i’ve fallen. those choke me till i’m just short of life eyes. against cool pane her cheek by my hand. pressing against her senses until she’s starry and that pride stripped to her ankles. she’ll submit the way she took me by her teeth. i can’t zip up without flinching. we know our love’s a farce and i’ll be sure she won’t leave without a scar of her own. seasons are changing yet we find wholeness in our broken. hiding my veins still she squeezes my...

‘they play at three’   they’re a great two-man band but i couldn’t hear them i was busy falling deeper in love.  * #barflypoet #josephapinto © Joseph A. Pinto * Poetry served raw and unedited from the moment crafted * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poetry collections available in paperback and ebook on Amazon. * www.etsy.com/shop/JosephPinto --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joseph-pinto3/support

‘ignipotent’   i collapse into you the way rome fell, she says, the ditches dug into my back proof. she could never stand on her own two feet and i could never sleep alone. we’d kiss with tongues wrapped in oceans cause our hearts never nourished land. and when she showered her skin would bleat favors my fingers failed to repay. snuff me, snuff me and while i may have gathered blankets i lacked strength to put her out. you are the forest and i the flash, she says and says it so slow, as...

‘eat anything with her’   and the napkins scattered across the bar they blamed the wind while i my face finding my breath again after she stole it the way she slipped her leg over mine and my friend in the band played a song i can’t remember what but it was perfect i had hamburger on my chin but she makes me a mess anyway.  * #barflypoet #josephapinto © Joseph A. Pinto * Poetry served raw and unedited from the moment crafted * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A...

‘dander’   collect the corners. truth is i can’t stand you. clotting spaces you think i don’t look but there you are. hoarder of retreats i set aside. drawling footfall drawn further than the extraction from drunks. destroy my senses while living in a deficiency all your own. what a life to have entered into. what a shame to drain the expectancy from my sad sack of bones. i signed the dotted lines of my own dna but never the f****d extrapolations from your cells. there’s more than a...

‘agglomerative’   daisies push from the trigger finger. i could have blown my brains but crapped the bed. i could have been a shadow now i’m just a stain. the murderer ties the boots. the killer flees without shoes. i’m stuck with the short end while my f***s get beaten by a stick. wipe the cock tip when it leaks yet ignore the mouth. change the sheets but leave the wash building inside the head.    agglomerative clustered together  but not coherent * #barflypoet #josephapinto ©...

‘basement’   mother doesn’t understand my profession. family holds their tongue. i’m reminded of strung hours in your futile ways while my own hands self-sacrifice till numb. down here the damp wreaks havoc waiting on blooming bones while booze goes slugged in detoured moments alone. all forget i claim a crown to king of men. i pave the ways without words to be said. as it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end. and so i wait. feet propped atop the table. a shiv sharp smile...

‘i learned’   i learned she’ll take the crispiest fries when i’m not looking and the smile in her eyes tells me she gave me a choice but she’s choosing and it’s okay she’s sipping my beer cause i love her and i want to share myself with her and there goes another fry but deep in her eyes another reason i stopped looking for anything other than her in my life and the bartender asks do you want another and i want to tell the world not when i have...

‘muscle relaxers and bourbon to bed’   my body a theater of late here the truths and its unconscionable current. i despise me. i despise the way the closeness comes tarnished.  lying woke, and watching, a slate of consumed expression, in-between of my eyes  sharp or dull either and both at once; east to west i rise to fall, an absence i want this world. in this state i lack gravity, i am sand i am lamp exhausted i am troubled child’s approach i am trembled...

‘extra’   tonight indignation listens to me solely but only when billy bush is not speaking. sometimes i worry my mind will explode in a spray of deep verses but the television can always be counted upon to pull me from the precipice.  it has not turned 8pm yet and already i am bound for bed, alone, and like the lampshade, holding back my light. my truest time comes when i close my eyes. billy? i lost any hope of stardom  a long time ago. #barflypoet #josephapinto ©...

‘what comes from not knowing’   bottle opens easier than door does key a function brain locks open-mouthed no entry stranger to house. no creeping mouse stolen sound crumble overtaken all left out   date expired. railing keeps stairs; the only marriage never failed.   holding the fingers cupped hands nothing squeezes tight enough avoids the spill. #barflypoet #josephapinto © Joseph A. Pinto * Poetry served raw and unedited from the moment crafted * 'From My Front...

‘buddha’   so apologetic just for the record you say i do you when do you ever say you do me we’re so dividedwe’re so united i’m eating crow tonight to keep the peace i’m so buddha i am so miracle not losing my senses this seems senseless such a song on record sing it back you do when have you never nothing so hidden the sun, the moon, the truth i rise, i fall, i escape you i rise, i fall, i escape you i rise, i fall, i escape you the sun, the moon, the truth i rise, i...

‘things you learn in the dentist’s chair’   so much gets stuck under the surface you think you’re clean until something hits just the wrong way then you want to rip it out. we go on about our daily lives an accumulation beneath our noses the smile never shows what is hidden neither do we hear what is held under tongue. it is possible to feign a nap but regardless the bright light will roll the eyes and we feel more naked with a messy mouth than we do stripping. saying see you...

‘daylight savings’   tomorrow goes an hour lost where goes all cast away chasing down ghost remains no saving grace to lengthened days love’s secrets shared beneath leaves what steals back to tides of seas can i say i still want you can i say you still hold me at this time nothing spins right how much longer spinning wrong another cycle spring ahead please don’t please don’t  please don’t fall behind me again a pulse needed to break this ice melt down reshape to something...

‘vagary’   it’s not like i saw this coming but i sure as hell put it out there enough. signal like a streak of sun. when young mother would say careful or you’ll get hurt. now the call has been answered and twisted limbs are all i crave. these beacons bouncing between chests and i’m waiting for one of us to drop the broadcast but we’re not. we’ve reasons like forests yet when one screams the other listens and no matter the deaf you may face you’ll never catch sight of my back. toss babe to...

‘vacuum’   here’s the thing about lonely you don’t need sun for it to follow.  * #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. * www.etsy.com/shop/JosephPinto --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joseph-pinto3/support

‘in this bar’   i made the sad song a double to fill the single shot of reality i walked in with between the eyes. * #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. * www.etsy.com/shop/JosephPinto --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joseph-pinto3/support

‘athazagoraphobia’   tucked under your arm. fashioned for your palm. where you had gone i went and nothing had been so glorious. to be seen in silence. to be chosen without whoring the moral halo circling my tongue. but through my stagnancy your creases grew and grew and for all the times i asked up you set me down. free from your fingers a space snipped one thread by one the comfort i thought we’d woven. now a basket full robs the singularity i once grasped. your laughter skipping through...

‘perpetual sap’   right hand gives. “where have your words gone,” she asks as if unaware she’s ended all i gratefully share though this she’s still willing to take.   a slow drip from the bleeding tree comes death of self-esteem;   i’ve a soft voice in saying i love you,   a glazed stupor when in silence no reply. * #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved. * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A...

‘rock salt’   it built back in ’78 and never stopped. inches to feet, feet to yards, yards to an ever-accumulating expanse of miles. treacherous traveling but who ever thought to shovel the journey from beneath their eyes. howling winds the limbs seemed to withstand, trunks sure and strong my god did the lineage ever get it wrong. the dna never made to carry this mess the cells like glass impacted by the blocks kept by one and to one another. i remember the drifts the wind made the image of...

‘bring your christmas decorations in’   fickle february melts then brings back the snow under a dead eye i walk counter-clockwise time flies with the crow and at the corner           a myriad of directions           only one choice. baby jesus left outside from the manger did he make much noise i sympathize shunned for reliance upon my own voice does plastic skin still tremble will it ever warm           taken inside? mary and joseph say the wind slays on days like these i...

‘have pain, will travel’   these high hats make funny shadows of my hands three for the price of one like auras illustrating the way i feel dark, grey and just a whisper.  i have no business writing under this light it will only f**k up my sight, really but anyone wondering what i might be up to will bear witness to my laborious squinting, my dogged approach, and not realize the sheer amount of despair i carry.   * #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright...

‘when will she’   she brought the woods into my heart but she insists on standing  outside our forest this lone tree without sun this bent thinking of hers.   when will she realize she has every right to sky and no seed goes punished.   of all the limbs i could choose i choose hers to wait under and when it becomes too much i’ll cup all she spills and gently nourish her roots.   when will she learn whichever way she leans is the direction i am...

‘curtain’   veiled silence enlightens the nuances tonight a young woman appears animate,  she is pale and fainting by inches, i know, my cranial base a window but without the view. what covers my eyes a phantom illusion; she’s security issues while i a letter without return , address and in this imaginary flesh i try.          the abyss comes forged in alabaster not the barely sufficient perpetuity for which i strive.   the woman loves a charmer but i am a workshop, solemnity...