Category Archives: Poetry

Stagnant Waters Their Diseases Yield

Stagnant waters their diseases yield,

Neglectful sores that never healed.

What once seemed healthy now reveals,

Sickness festering, under skin that’s pealed.

Seeking answers we look on high,

As scalpel cuts, we writhe and cry.

The blood doth stream until it’s dry,

Scarring seems as ever nigh.

We chose to hide our seething pain,

Though it cut against the grain.

Now unleashed this horrid stain,

No longer choosing to hide disdain.

Gnashing teeth and spewing spit,

The lower we sink in the hellish pit.

 Brought on ourselves by feverish fit,

The more unwillingly we submit.

Submit perhaps, or just gave in,

Giving up to mankind’s penchant for sin.

Our memories are short and patience thin,

Living a destiny that’s already been.

On fear of death, our egos flow,

No pain or suffering we’ll forgo.

Commonsense be damn as we do show,

We’re circling the drain for all we know.

I fear dear friend our wounds won’t heal,

As those before, our fates been sealed.

We never learn what histories revealed,

Instead, we embrace our end with zeal.

Sorrow Fills My Soul

Sorrow fills my soul looking out to the in that is black and distasteful

Choking my essence and making me hateful

I bleed trying to quench the pain, but the pain won’t let go

What a fool I am and what a fool I show

No one knows it’s me because I keep it hidden in the deepest recesses

But God knows the heart that to myself confesses

I do nothing, justifying my wrongs just to live day-to-day

Though my conscience constantly gets in the way

What is it I’m after, what is it that I want as dollar after dollar goes to hell

Get rich quick, strike the jackpot, revel in the winning bell

It’s a fools dream, one that seldom comes true

A realization for no one, but the fortunate few

I swear each day after to turn down a different road, vowing to refrain

Sadly each let down, self-inflicted causes immeasurable pain

I don’t know if I can do this myself, do it all alone

When temptation knocks at every door where my weakness has shown

I’m scared, terrified at my persistent weakness

What demon has possessed me engraining this bleakness

Perhaps it’s me, my mind, and nothing more is to blame

Perhaps it’s just a weakness of character or a lifetime of shame

Maybe it’s just an excuse for a depressive mind

Or maybe it is really nothing of the kind

If help reaches out it to throw me a life-line

Gladly I’d take it as a telling sign

That nothing that happens cannot be cured

With love and kindness and strength that is assured

I put my life in the hands of a power higher than myself

Struggling to put my ego on a shelf

What else am I to do, but try and try again to be a better man

Doing what I know is right and doing what I can

~~ Dominic DiFrancesco ~~

Defeated And Detained

Defeated and detained;

His cries for mercy mercilessly ignored.

What warrant had they

To choke a life into lifelessness.

Was it out of hate and fear

Or is being black in America a crime.

We have not come so far as we’d like to believe,

Reliving the violence of Selma over and over again.

The wounds have been reopened,

Bleeding from what long ago scarred.

But there was no healing,

Just poison bubbling beneath the surface.

Erupting, toxins asphyxiating,

Pleas of “I can’t breathe”, echoed ‘til silent.

Guilt determined before innocence,

At the knee of those sworn to protect.

Judge, jury and executioner,

Hiding behind a badge.

Will there be any justice?

A question asked many times before,

Or will George Floyd be forgotten 

‘Til the next autopsy?

Depravity

There is a coldness,

A heartless side to man.

Feelingless, bloodless, soulless,

Human life means nothing.

Life and death are mirages,

Something to be spared or taken,

Sacrificed or saved it matters not.

Cane is buried deep within our Abel,

Hate within outward love.

In each of us there is darkness;

We hide it, pretend it does not exist,

But we know it exists.

Headlines scream it daily,

Good becoming evil,

Sickness throttling the well,

Peace shattered by bloodletting.

We are animals

Living for the moment,

Consequences be damned.

Our claim to be of higher form

Is the mirage;

Drawn from our imagination,

Our denial our ignorance.

Advanced! We are delusional;

Little more than protozoa

Living for the sake of life,

Eating solely to live,

Never thinking about tomorrow,

Thinking not of anyone but ourselves.

Wickedness courses through our veins;

We cannot stop it,

We cannot purge it.

We are beasts 

Living our chemistry

Through blood, death and depravity

With nary a care.

~*~*~*~*~

~~ Dom DiFrancesco ~~

Thirty Years Married (Tanka)

Embed from Getty Images

Thirty years married

Five weeks working together

Under the same roof

We haven’t killed each other

It must be true love

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

My wife is still working from home, likely until the beginning of next year. I am back in the office now as of May 4th. It is a small office with lots of room between each of us for social distancing. The poem is light hearted as my wife and I get along very well and always have. As a matter of fact, since I’ve gone back to work, I’ve received a couple of messages telling me how much she misses me. It was very nice to hear even though we knew the time working together would only be temporary.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~~ Dom DiFrancesco ~~

If…

If a tree falls in the woods…,
Do we hear it?

If a boy cries wolf,
Do we reprimand it?

If politics contradict science,
Do we believe it?

If a lie is told over and over,
Do we ignore it?

If a line is drawn in the sand,
Do we cross it?

If we won’t think for ourselves,
Do we deserve it?

If we refuse to learn from the past,
Do we repeat it?

Question authority as a thoughtful man.
Trust the facts when facts support,
For ignorance can never replace truth.

Pandemic (Acrostic)

Pain and suffering, black verse white
Another reason to divide us
No one is immune, young or old the death toll rises
Denial won’t make it go away
Eventually, it will strike home
Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends everyone knows someone
Ignorance is not bliss
Crises are real as the mass graves reveal.

 

~~ Dominic DiFrancesco ~~

Democracy Dashed Upon The Rocks

Democracy dashed upon the rocks

Lighthouse guide has fallen dark

Mayday, mayday calls the flock

Two by two like Noah’s ark

 

Captain’s crew has blindly haled

Commands barked sure to kill

Near time win will long time fail

When keel doth rupture on sill

 

By headwinds sail to Davy’s doom

Tsunami comes rushing in

Neither hold nor deck is safety’s room

They’ll pay for ignorance sin

 

Histories ne’re kind to pirate thieves

Nor saber tongued silvery fools

While innocent victims losses grieved

Their anger grows til it’s cruel

 

Lashing out victims surely will march

The port be their final stand

Skyward they gaze backs and necks upwards arched

Victory’s sweet and it’s grand

 

Criminal fools feel they’re immune

Til their pokes raise the ire and rage

Common man pushed to the brink of his doom

Turns upon captor and cage

 

Freedom they hail til finally set free

WIth blood on their calloused hands

Keepers grotesque lay twisted at feet

The weaker take control of the land

 

Postponing their fate is futile at best

They’d be better to meld with the times

Thinking this day they’ll withhold from the rest

Soon they will answer for crimes

 

~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~