Joseph Pinto, the barflypoet

‘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 anot...

‘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...

‘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...

‘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 * Poet...

‘buddha’   so apologetic just for the record you say i do you when do you ever say you do me we’re so divided we’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 esca...

‘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 eye...

‘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 beh...

‘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...

‘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

‘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

‘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’...

‘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 Rig...

‘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...

‘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   ...

‘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 fuck 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 de...

‘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 lear...

‘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 perpetuit...

‘corner’   i don’t want to be here anymore. i’m not afraid to admit it. i’m not afraid to say it. i’m tired of the constant dismissals. i’m tired of actions not matching the words the cowardice, the absolvement of blame, the walking away like i hardly ever mattered, or was, or will be. i’m tired of my role. i’m tired of my mask. i’m tired of writing in a pad whoring myself under the pimp of a hand...

‘komorebi’   for once i lost the words. for once all in my world drew its breath. you, cross-legged atop your blanket, me, little boy bursting from my chest. the portrait brushed around us so lush in pause. “on my final day this is where i wish to end,” but a playful frog took my thoughts before i vented. and the lake you longed adopted i immediately made my own, a mirror i had lacked all my life....

'final test'   drink till all goes spinning riches a combustion within the head rejuvenated spark a circle an expression of deafness,      immediately night flutters      and a pedestal      above the strange and fantastic,      this imperceptible ghost. multiplied the fall a stiff wire my shadow jumped top bottom, almost incarnate, now the others disorient the pale of my spirit and regret...

(volume up)     ‘no title’   left hand receives. the universe’s temperament  presses with its giving hand against my throat.   why did i come here to drink?   assessment of my days like a piano hits the wrong notes. four stools down the maestro taps a blue pen. unforgivingly.    jesus bathes under mosquito corpses.   the last draft of my story requires a final edit. with a whoosh the front door op...

‘in a hotel away from eyes’   the haunt is recognizable staring back i know this from when i was young the father, the son, neither ever holy, like stray dogs followed the ghost of which so many but now only one. the watch gone missing though like cicadas the spinning hands buzzed and interrupted unseen thoughts, until finally manifested too late. “i don’t want to die” but by then cancer claimed h...

‘the light in the dark’   every story has a start. so this is what that is. a start. or maybe this is the end, because a start does not necessarily begin cleanly. so this might very well be the start of the end. and if you think i’m being poetic, i’m not. i think i’ve reached the point where i can be honest and say i’m existing, and that’s just not life, right? every day struggling to find meaning...

‘abditive’   part of the sham is participating in it. so pour the masquerade like a cold one into glass. drink it slow or fast. doesn’t matter because the bloat will follow you home. all they say heads your way but never is it meant for you. like bubbles children try to snatch from july sky, it floats just close enough to delight then gone. every one of those conversations a soap slick residue ato...

‘and i know’   and i know that you don't want what i want  anymore. #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