Monthly Archives: October 2012

I Should Have Listened

By D. R. DiFrancesco

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They are only things,

Temporary and replaceable trinkets,

Their loss, of course stings,

But at the time you could not think it.

 ~~

They asked you to leave and not look back,

Refusing, you took your life in your hands,

While Sandy bore down on your homes and your shacks.

Threatening to bury you in water and sand.

 ~~

Stubborn you claim, “ I’ve been through this before”,

I made it once, I made twice, I can make it again,

But Sandy is not like any of those other girls they implore,

She’s reckless, she’s deadly, she’s a ten out of ten.

 ~~

You know better than they do,

She can’t take what is yours,

Until the trees fell and the waves grew,

You tried to batten your windows and doors.

 ~~

The winds whipped and the rains fell,

Now your house has gone dark,

There’s no one to call, there’s no one to tell,

A loud bang and the sky is lit up by a transformers spark.

 ~~

A tear falls and your heart begins to race,

Maybe Sandy isn’t like any of the other girls I knew,

I wasn’t afraid of Irene or Katrina I just laughed in their face,

I’m beginning to think that this one played me for the fool.

 ~~

You called for help, but your cries go unheeded,

They told you to get out, you just wouldn’t listen,

Left to ride out the storm ‘til the oceans receded,

Under stress you tremble and sweat begins to glisten.

 ~~

A horrible crash and the doors turn to splinter,

Windows explode shattered glass all around,

Nowhere to hide as the waves rush to enter,

Trapped with no chance to reach higher ground.

 ~~

You struggle to hang on not to drift out to sea,

As your walls crumble down like paper mache,

The surge sucks you out as you lunge for a tree,

Praying to God to live another day.

 ~~

Your tired and weak as your hold begins to slip,

Life flashes like a movie in your minds eye,

Kicking and straining not to lose your wet grip,

Hoping against hope that its not time to die.

 ~~

But your fate it was sealed in that moment of haste,

You had your chance given more than should have been needed,

The lose of your life such a sad and immoral waste,

All for disregard of a message that should have been heeded.

 ~~

We now mourn your loss as a tragedy unforgiving,

At the hands of a lady with the devil in her soul,

You could have been one to go on in life living,

Instead you’re another uptick in Sandy’s death toll.

 ~~

You’re a sad reminder of nature’s great strength,

To be feared and respected in all of it’s glory,

Awesome and powerful while held at arms length,

May your loss be our lesson in this tragic storm story.

Sadly, there are those that do not have an appropriate respect for the power of nature.  Too often these individuals refuse to heed the warnings given to them and the result is not just the loss of their personal property, but the loss of their lives.

I truly mourn those who perished as a result of Hurricane Sandy and hope that somehow those that lost their lives due to their blatant disregard of the warnings serve as a lesson to those who may contemplate similar actions in the future.

I honestly believe that there are no material possessions in this world worth sacrificing ones life for.   I hope and pray for a speedy recovery and return to normalcy for those who are suffering from the wrath of Sandy.  My heart goes out to you all.

The Insomniac

By D. R. DiFrancesco

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I lie,

Head cradled in a pillow of down,

Soft and warm still I can not sleep.

~~

Thoughts race through my wild mind,

Exhausting me as I seek out slumber,

Knowing that it eludes me again.

~~

This inescapable race,

Taunts me, dangling a carrot in front of my unwilling mind,

Exploiting the weakness in me.

~~

To what end,

As dawn breaks ending another night of torment,

I am mentally weary as I slip from between the silken sheets.

~~

Awake in the physical only,

I lumber through the day a mere shell of who I am,

Begging for respite from myself.

~~

Seeking sanctuary in melatonin and sleeping pills,

Face down in a self-induced coma,

I struggle to release my mind from this torture.

~~

Relief is only temporary,

A solitary night of dreamless repose,

Refreshing just shy of expiration.

~~

Insomnia, my uninvited friend,

My companion through hours of darkness,

Like a relative come to visit and never leaves.

~~

Eviction seems so distant,

As opportunity for lethargy escapes,

Overwhelming me with inexorable nights of tumult.

Childish Insecurity

By D. R. DiFrancesco

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Its a masquerade,

Decorated in random shades of color,

All to hide the true self from you.

~

I am ashamed of the real me,

For what reason I do not know,

Afraid I might be thought less of.

~

Oh the pure foolishness,

A game played solely in my mind,

Grounded in a child’s fantasy.

~

The excruciating pain of insecurity,

Every face a mirrored distortion of me,

Laughing, whispering, looking away.

~

They avert their eyes,

As if glimpsing some hideous monster,

There’s nowhere to hide.

~

What a horrible delusion,

I fabricate my own nightmares,

Without the comfort of slumber.

~

Travails have haunted me,

Ripping confidence asunder,

Though time after time I’ve overcome.

~

So ingrained is this sense of doubt,

It is woven into my being,

Like an old friend I could scarcely do without.

~

Still each new day is a struggle,

A torment to beat back,

Another chance for me to rise above myself.

Image: Standford University

The Minds Eye

By D. R. DiFrancesco

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder,

As does love when souls grow older,

Doth the mind play tricks on the aging eye,

Maybe so, it most surely try.

Portraying the look of younger days,

We overlook the changing grays,

Projecting on the freshness of youth,

Beliefs most surely are the truth.

With utmost certainty a gift this must be,

For lovely today as the first are thee,

Is this a trick or are we but blind,

Left to the mercy of a hopeful mind.

Doth this make us mere fools to our memory,

Would have it no other way if it let me,

Hiding away the ravages of time,

Leaving in life a love most sublime.

The Land of Disillusionment

By D. R. DiFrancesco

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Faces of color,

Eyed through blinders of suspicion,

Had we not buried this decades back,

People minimized for political gain.

~~

Grasping for a solution,

The problem steeped in your imagination,

You’ve convinced yourself this is righteous,

Yet racism and bigotry fester in you.

~~

This is not sacrosanct,

Taking hold of the weakness of the innocent,

Illegitimizing their right to be represented,

All for an ideal that isn’t your own.

~~

The media claims to be fair and balanced,

While corrupting your mind,

Brainwashing you with their hatred and mistrust,

As you mindlessly tow their party line.

~~

You despise him as an archvillain,

Is it his race, what you perceive his religion to be,

Is it his name, his father, his mother,

All targets of your aggression.

~~

Your side spouts lies,

Making claims they know to be blatantly false,

Saying whatever you want to hear,

Sycophants following like lambs to slaughter.

~~

This is what they want from you,

Belief in a past that can’t be resuscitated,

The future won’t settle for the lesser,

Still you continue to drink from the tainted well.

~~

They view half of us as leeches,

Feeding off of the system for our own personal gain,

Who are they, the elderly, children, disabled,

Do not judge them unless you have walked in their shoes.

~~

A sad state of affairs,

Pitting brother against brother and sister against sister,

The weapon of words no less brutal,

Leaving victims on both sides bloody and disillusioned.

Image credit: theatlantic.com

Monarch’s Reign

Monarch Butterfly

By D. R. DiFrancesco

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Mandarin,white, obsidian glory,

Exquisite majesty soaring,

Graceful feathery flutter,

Whisper silent utter.

~

Fairy tale grace inspired,

Marathon distance flier,

Born in natures swaddle,

Angelic infants toddle.

~

Innocent beauty undercover,

Lives to boast a princely lover,

Short lived romance symphony plays,

‘Til they part on dying days.

~

Crown jeweled natures elegance,

Wings rhythm heavenly trance,

King and Queen exalted royalty,

Nobility commands subjects loyalty.

~

Behold honors modest atonement,

Loveliness granted in its moment,

Rembrandt’s stroke to you would pale,

God’s paragon winged angel you sail.

Image: monarch-butterfly.info

Recapturing Innocence

By D. R. DiFrancesco

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I found a place,

Deep inside me,

Warm and comforting,

Something I thought I’d lost.

~

So many years ago,

Innocence shielded me,

Harbored my emotions,

Enveloped me in the simplicity of youth.

~

Age changed,

I let my gentility drift off,

Replacing it with cynicism,

Spoiling the wonder of me.

~

The world didn’t change,

It is still just as wondrous,

Instead it was me that was corrupted,

My skepticism and pessimism changed my view.

~

Looking for the worst,

My fellow man could not be trusted,

Conniving and deceitful by nature,

I lost sight of the decent.

~

My perception flawed,

Skewed by life experience,

Taken as the standard bearer,

Distorting my future interactions.

~

Mistrust instills bitterness,

Fear of the worst is all consuming,

Depression and anxiety take root,

Trapping ugliness inside.

~

Tired of the sadness,

No longer recognizable,

It was not me in the mirror,

Rather a shell of who I was.

~

With eyes wide,

I looked deep,

Straining to find the innocent me,

Drawn to tears by the time I’d lost.

~

There is joy in letting go,

Finding good in what surrounds me,

Purging the cynic and skeptic,

Anchors that weighed me down.

~

I have found that place,

Pleasing to my body and soul,

Lost so many years ago,

To the ravages of maturity.

Image credit: citizenshift.org

Love Eternal

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~

Love, a sweet and fragile thing,

So often taken for granted,

Or tossed aside as insignificant.

~~

Only a heart blackened,

Burned and broken,

Could commit such a tragedy.

~~

Choosing to pass alone,

Lonely and cold,

Into the eternal night.

~~

Foolish choices,

Made by selfish men,

In the name of earthly gain.

~~

For what purpose,

Material possessions are finite,

Discarded on our last day.

~~

But is not love eternal,

Gifted freely from one to another,

Melding with our very souls.

~~

What a poor man is he,

Confined to his worldly goods,

While silence fills his rooms.

~~

Does not love will us to go on,

Strengthening our resolve,

Even in times of affliction.

~~

If this were this not the case,

I long ago would have ceased,

Suffocated by life’s despair.

~~

Choosing love instead is most natural,

Engraved into our very being,

‘Til death do us part.

River’s Run

By D. R. DiFrancesco

The river wails in excitement as it reaches the precipice

Morphing into an effervescent shower of God’s tears

Crashing helplessly on the rocks below

The river never trembles

Never hesitates

Never endeavors to postpone it’s end

Instead it marches headlong into the unrevealed

On to a destiny known only to the maker

What a wonderous life it must lead

Concerned not with it’s fate

Content that it has traveled the determined path

Only to be reborn as a bountiful gift from Heaven