Joseph Pinto, the barflypoet

‘approaching’   the moon approaching  the transformation begins  this beast now a wilder thing. #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

it’s nearly summer vacation so now what’s your excuse??   ‘can’t stop me’   when i get the call that my daughter’s school is closing due to inclement weather i stay up late and drink like it’s the first day of summer vacation.  #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved. * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Disti...

‘piggies’   and just like that she makes her feet home in my lap says  boy rub my piggies i came a long way for your palms   well i never had no market now i’m stocking shelves i wanna keep her fed and i love her tongue in my mouth   so she tastes me inside out and knows she no longer walks alone and if my baby wants me i’ll carry my baby home   i am home, i am home for my baby i am home, i am hom...

the bottles, the empty bottles…   ‘at 2am’   i'll put this as succinctly as i can:  you treat me like shit.   disguise your shortcomings if you must  (and you must) preach the honor of your duty (i no longer listen)  the only role i have ever asked is that you actually see me   instead you have left me wayward twisting in restless sleep  drowning in bottles;   i am not above saying i have fail...

someone teach me the reasons and not the lesson…   ‘filipendulous’   tired. spell it. two vowels and thirty-three bowed vertebrae like overpacked luggage from my spine. i’m good keeping possessions but what i own ain’t mine. a chest with a hole and no room to fit in. one more scotch or bourbon don’t ask for reasons i wouldn’t know where to start and if i did you wouldn’t listen. a shadow scabbed o...

and this is why i love writing from bars. i think i need to go on tour…   ‘she’s just angry’   cries: he used me he took all the best i was.   she sucks angry on her cigarette the way she sucked angry on his dick. #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved. * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit&#3...

moments are few but here is my one…   ‘avoidance’   mother and father took the tines to my eyes but never time to soothe my tongue and so much of my embryo goes unanswered like why did i grow into who i am and why do i see now what i’ve been blind to before and who the fuck nourished me when most obviously my bloodlines ran thin? i am not yours and clearly i am so wayward how could i ever put fort...

perfectly whole yet not quite together…   ‘monachopsis’   a thousand interlocking pieces yet none hold the smooth to slip me in. a shape with projection i seem to push the mass away. even if we lock would i ever want to conform to your spatial monotony? i hear what you’re saying but it’s falling on deaf ears. you want me here but a path leads from the sash i’ve left open. inch turned to gap. the d...

‘death no matter’   these people they think i die to drink no, no friends   i drink to die. #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

do you stay well after the curtain drops…?   ‘playbill’   fifth act. we find our protagonist once fool now hanged man center stage and all unfolding behind eyes does so unaware of severed cords to facial expression and while heart trembles worrisomely to outcomes beyond measure he’ll suspend expectation and keep forever his surrender   waiting.  'playbill' a poster announcing a theatrical...

where are the fresh voices and deliveries? why is so much presented for the eyes and not crafted from the heart?   ‘beacon’   we live in a world of posers and followers desperate for the free and brave to liberate us from all the shit.  #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved. * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and &#3...

he’s interesting— he’s well-traveled he’s a musician on weekends he’s single but he’s not my type.   i listen to her words and shake my head sadly knowing she’ll find a reason to take him up on a night out.  #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved. * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and Scars' and 'A Distilled Spirit' poe...

looking thru the glass. and seeing nothing…   ‘assassin’   something’s swimming in my snifter that shouldn’t be. maybe part of a bug or yet another piece of myself i’ve been forced to swallow and now repeats in untimely fashion like when i want to forget the knife holes in my back. usually i ignore all leaking down my spine but it’s hard when all i want to really say goes whistling through. i’m su...

you figure things out the hard way…   ‘yes isn’t always the answer’   yes isn't always the answer i couldn't figure out  what he meant but it became clearer after several shots of irish whiskey   look, sometimes you have to grow balls and stick up for yourself be a man and not some compliant pussy that rolls over to your woman.   he suddenly got a text from his wife and hurried home.   i p...

and here hanging is a wardrobe of uncertainty…   ‘gallimaufry’   here, there, you left your face and if only i knew which expression belonged. eyes constantly turning, mouth always churning and one nail is not enough to raise you up and into light. there’s a plastic to your condition that doesn’t agree under the ridges of my fingertips. i can’t collect you any longer. i can’t listen to the fabrica...

'change of scenery'   shoulders slumped he left his house   there his posture straightened  along with his optimism.  #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.

'muffin'   it’s the kind of wind that runs through your house like an intolerable child bored from their mind, the kind of wind that brings about pause and makes you question all the warmth you’ve allowed to escape from your life. the kind of wind that pairs best with chili because like you it comes together in a mess. i love you, she says, and you know it’s only because she’s devoted to s...

‘trampoline’   clear sky thins the smoke from the eyes but exasperation dries the slick out from the tongue. no piecing together of clever words can ever detract from the lines you hurl and cool cheeks betray bleats of a mourning heart. higher and higher you’re always at it say you’ll stop just like an addict keep me down as long as you rise up. on and on you’re so dramatic flip the script it’s yo...

‘words like ghosts’   'go live your life, she told him.   but he didn’t know how without her.  #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.

but who ever listens..? 'tiger'   caution! do not put fingers or hands into the cage! yet you fail to heed the warning time and time again. it cannot help if you now lack the necessary digits to pound your discriminatory reports under its eyes or the common sense to keep from worming back into its head. incessant you ignored the cue from its rollbacked ears and still you brandish the nerve...

just leave the bottle…   ‘proof’   weakness from an old injury. the broke breaks deeper than the disobedience of soul to bone. i’ve oft tried to mend myself with white cocktail napkins and while catching the spill they could never wipe the mess. there’s not much left but a photograph of us along michigan avenue. who knows if heaven exists but something beyond our capacity to reason raised our lips...

‘obvious metaphor’ though pretty the dandelions choke and kill the lawn. #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.

‘appreciation’ a devil’s deal for love heart freely ripped gnarled vines replacing fruitless eyes rust weeping emaciated clouds sun refuge shovel, he handed break soil, he spoke, only now can you appreciate drought. #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...

'lorn' good god almighty, you widen my eyes with clandestine grandeur, salve my tongue as vessel to your unknowable ways…only to rob me lost of true fervor, my faith upon my knees before eternal night, pregnant above my ashen countenance in bedeviling possibilities? #barflypoet #josephapinto www.josephpinto.com © Copyright Joseph A. Pinto. All Rights Reserved. * 'From My Front Steps,' 'Scotch and...

'lacuna' still waiting here, a blue without horizon, an awful gale without wind to blow. your name about the corners in reflective manifestations, none the direction from where we came. keeping the posture when the rain falls teeming down, the realization tread water means one has since drowned. and when the sun dries the sodden mess it leaves me feeling worse. at best. no more skipping puddles or...