Life’s greatest rewards
Friendship, love, marriage, children
So easily lost
Succumbing to deadly sin
Destroys all that we treasure
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Life’s greatest rewards
Friendship, love, marriage, children
So easily lost
Succumbing to deadly sin
Destroys all that we treasure
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Self-esteem of youth
Broken by thoughtless discourse
Like carnival glass
Scattered in minuscule shards
Is laborious to mend
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Outside–
You see a face,
Weathered, showing the wear of time,
Wrinkles carved like dry rivers
Affixing character to a once youthful landscape.
~
Soft skin hands, wipe the sweat from the brow,
Long since retired from hard work,
Thin and gnarled,
They are more bone than flesh,
Still their past loveliness remains.
~
Hunched, from the years
And back breaking work
It’s a struggle just to stand up,
Yet there is nary a complaint uttered
Thankful just to have lived.
~
“Come with me”, said in whispered tone,
Taking a frail trembling arm in compliance,
Photographs yellowed, faded show glorious youth,
Beauty, fifty years past gleams brightly in your eyes
Though the blue is less brilliant.
~
“This was me”, as if unrecognizable
Pointing with an arthritic finger
Leading to story upon story.
“You see a face…”, spoken with a smile,
“But I am so much more…”
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
A heart once hardened
Ferments in caustic hatred
Shutting out true love
Tragic is this festering
Leaving nothing but ashes
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Acts once commonplace
Bravery, human kindness
Are now rarities
To avoid getting involved
We coldly turn a blind eye
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Long nights spent in quiet sitting
Hand-in-hand oh how fitting
With joyous smile upon your face
Soft and delicate like cotton lace
Your gentle touch by slender fingers
Whence we part the feeling lingers
These simple things forever endear
In every moment I have you hear
No more in life could ever I pray
In health and sickness still you stayed
With love and thanks I hold you close
My lover and friend I cherish most
Praising God daily you’re here with me
For without you so alone I’d be
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Scatter-brained fury
Whirlwind– chaotic thought
Focus forfeited
Words, trapped behind a gauntlet
On a pothole laden road
Poetic nightmare…
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Drawn to a waterless mirage,
Sustenance proffered from behind a smiling facade,
We long for what was, the honesty, the promise given at inception.
This nation…this world, is not what they envisioned!
Never-the-less, weak-minded and self-absorbed we self-inflict
Over and over and over again.
I too have inflicted myself on more than one occasion,
Placing faith in the faithless, trust in the untrustworthy
Only to have hopes dashed to oblivion.
You also, in honest appraisal, must have done so as well.
When will we wake up to the traitorous criminality of those entrusted with the sacred,
The injustice, the deceit, the blatant prejudice toward the people?
We the people comprises every citizen,
Race nor creed nor color nor sexual orientation has bearing,
Not just for those deemed as righteous or worthy in another’s eyes.
They are us…beholden to us, answerable to us if we demand it,
But instead we cower with an air of disinterest, taking our medicine
Like good subservient children.
Who is to blame for this debacle?
They are,
We are,
We are the true culprits,
Complicit in their scheme!
Complicit through tolerance or blindness, neither an excuse.
When will we awake from our slumber to hold these servants of the public accountable
We have an obligation to the experiment, yet we have faltered.
Laziness and ignorance are our legacy,
The legacy we have created in our own image.
How sad to see our path toward the annals of history,
Strewn with the sacrifices of the fallen.
If not for ourselves, for them we should correct course,
Return to the greatness that was us,
If we still know the way.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Cold granite headstones
Reminders of what has been
Cherished memories
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~