Joseph A. Pinto

philocaly

Joseph Pinto

November 24, 2021

philocaly

i know november by the way wet leaves fill my ribs and how a sinking sun takes more than it gives and when that dark funnel of crows goes churning i dream i’m their last center spark of bright before sweep of day flees. eyes set shallower in my head than before and while there’s no shame admitting my door slowly shuts i prefer to think i’m transitioning. the cynic points out the false show at my feet and sure all has collapsed but where else has the end seemed so sublime. it’s like my insides have turned out and i’m kicking bones instead of stones in search of something irrefutable in whatever i might leave behind. finally found and with a new wind gone, gone. only venus is sage enough to figure i don’t belong here. yet here i return.

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‘From My Front Steps,’ ‘Scotch and Scars’ and ‘A Distilled Spirit’ in paperback and Kindle ebook at Amazon.

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trauma

Joseph Pinto

7 comments

November 17, 2021

trauma

when i didn’t like it, i’d cross it out, when it didn’t go my way i’d scribble it a hundred times until self tore and the pen fell through, smeared smiles and rehearsed lines and i’d be alright cause mom said i’d grow out of it, well now i’m up and out and fallen into something else, they all believe i’m alright as evidenced by the ascending notches along my height chart, i pleaded until coke turned to sprite, why worry my parents with carcinogenics stalking the gums when i could pass silently reading the scars on flipped hands, don’t fret your pretty head or stagger that fleeing footfall of pity asunder, i’ve chosen ink over poison now, it leaves quite the mess, i pray you’ll recover my notebooks once i’ve moved on, the guilt of many many missing sheets corroding your teeth like the soft guidance and kool-aid you forced on me as a kid when all i asked for was the clarity of a glass of water.

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‘From My Front Steps,’ ‘Scotch and Scars’ and ‘A Distilled Spirit’ in paperback and Kindle ebook at Amazon.

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serotinal

Joseph Pinto

11 comments

November 10, 2021

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.

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‘From My Front Steps,’ ‘Scotch and Scars’ and ‘A Distilled Spirit’ in paperback and Kindle ebook at Amazon.

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new edition of Dusk and Summer

Joseph Pinto

no comments

November 1, 2021

Yesterday (November 1) marked the start of pancreatic cancer awareness month and with it the 3^rd edition release of my novella ‘Dusk and Summer.’ I wrote this in 2008 and after a number of years, the publishing rights have reverted back to me. And so now I share it with you! Trust me, you will not read another story quite like this. I’ll be donating a portion of proceeds from my book to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer research in honor of my father.

‘Does Heaven await beneath the waves? One man needs to know.

When his dying father whispers a cryptic message to him, he has no choice but to summon his courage and begin the quest for a lifetime. It’s a race against time to realize his father’s wish and fulfill his own destiny; it’s a discovery of the unbreakable bond between father and son. It’s a journey of the heart that unfolds where only the Chosen exist – in the moments between Dusk and Summer.’

click here to purchase Dusk and Summer.

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‘From My Front Steps,’ ‘Scotch and Scars’ and ‘A Distilled Spirit’ in paperback and Kindle ebook at Amazon.

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boardwalk

Joseph Pinto

10 comments

October 29, 2021

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.

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‘From My Front Steps,’ ‘Scotch and Scars’ and ‘A Distilled Spirit’ in paperback and Kindle ebook at Amazon.

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grievous

Joseph Pinto

no comments

October 25, 2021

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.

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‘FROM MY FRONT STEPS‘

now available on Amazon

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#josephapinto

‘Scotch and Scars’ and ‘A Distilled Spirit’ in paperback and Kindle ebook at Amazon.

subscribe to the audio barflypoet YouTube channel https://tinyurl.com/y2stm5ms