Tag Archives: anger

With Tears I Say Goodbye

With tears I say goodbye

Though I do not know your pain,

Nor the pain of your ancestors

Inflicted at the hands of those that look like me.

When I look in the mirror

I am not proud,

I am not proud of our past,

Not proud of of our inhumanity,

Not proud of the picture our hands are painting.

With a broad brush,

We paint in your blood,

Red and warm as mine

Though left to dry cold in the streets.

We stand around,

As if awaiting applause,

While your spirit fades,

Showing just how little we care.

I know this is not me,

Though I know you can’t see it;

And that these words are just words

Unable to bring you back from the dead.

Your family grieves,

But their grief is overshadowed,

Trampled down under the weight of constant diversions

Portraying you as something less than human.

Yet none of this matters!

Injustice cannot hide forever

Behind an iron blue citadel

Mortared with lies, racism and hatred.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

AUTHORS NOTE: I was not going to write another piece about the tragedy in Ferguson Missouri today, but I find Michael Browns’s death so troubling that I couldn’t help myself.  His death in my eyes shows that racism still runs rampant in this country though many of us would prefer not to admit it.  For those that would like to pretend this never happened, I think it is time you opened your eyes.  Explain to me how being stopped for jaywalking could escalate to the point where a young man is shot six times and killed, then left alone in the street for so long.  This is completely beyond my comprehension.

Imperfect System (Tanka)

Imperfect system

Still, it is better than most

Even when it fails

Of little consolation

To the living or the dead

 

~~ Dominic DiFrancesco ~~

Anger–You Can See It On Their Grimaced Faces

Anger–you can see it on their grimaced faces;

Marching, hands raised in civil defiance.

Neither curfew nor militarization will quell them

In the face of injustice.

What passes for authority tries to divert,

Maybe he took the “sweets”, maybe he didn’t,

Maybe he smoked a little weed,

Maybe jaywalking is a capital crime in the south,

Maybe murder is ignored when hidden behind a badge.

So much for civil rights,

So much for equality under the law,

So much for compassion and common decency.

He was eighteen and unarmed,

Of this there is no dispute!

Perhaps he wasn’t an angel…are any of us?

I have bent the law,

Maybe even broken it a time or two,

But I’m still here, breathing, smiling, growing older.

We can deny–

That racism exists,

We can deny–

That blacks are treated differently than whites,

We can deny–

That skin color matters,

But denial doesn’t make it so!

Changing laws do not change hearts,

And time does not necessarily heal…

These are irrefutable facts.

Behind closed doors we disrobe,

Taking off our suit of political correctness,

To reveal naked hate.

We spew the epithets of our fathers,

Who broke the backs of an unwilling immigrant.

It’s as though times have never changed…

And perhaps they haven’t.

The manacles once of iron are now invisible,

The whips of braided leather no longer leave scars,

But the pain, fear and displacement still exists

…In this twenty-first century.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Frozen To The Bone

Frozen to the bone.

Bleeding heart ripped from its soul;

Faith in man–fading!

In an eyes blink we do kill,

No remorse ‘til it’s too late.   This seems oh so cold,

Against what we preach is right,

Yet it doesn’t stop.

We are Neanderthals still,

Little evolved from our past.

Please don’t fool yourselves,

We are wolves disguised as sheep,

Prepared to slaughter.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Show Me Man’s Kindness (Tanka)

Show me man’s kindness

Show me man’s humanity

In spite of himself

I’m not sure it’s possible

With the evil he commits

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Death Of Our Future

Death of our future;

Skin color–judge and jury

In prejudice hands.

O’ the man he might have been,

Greatness he might have attained!

We will never know

As the blood pool will attest.

Our youth sacrificed

For their outward appearance

Instead of what’s in the heart.

This is pure hatred,

Revealing the blackened soul

Of years long gone by.

We thought we were above this

In one nation under God.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Should A Tempest Flare (Tanka)

Should a tempest flare

Retreat from its vile rage

Peace lay just beyond

Like the eye of a cyclone

It too must take pause to rest

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Boom

Boom!

Explosions foretell impending doom.

Shrapnel tears, litter, debris,

Screams of those one cannot see.

Missiles launched behind human shields,

Zionists and zealots refuse to yield.

Suffering little as the innocent die,

Denying they’re complicit, a terrible lie.

Which side is right, which side is wrong,

Difficult to tell they’ve hated so long.

Whether Gaza, Israel, Russia, Ukraine,

War is still war just with different names.

Fighting for ethnicity, Allah or God,

They’re “holier than thou” is just a facade.

Violence and death under whatever name,

Can’t be justified no matter what the claim.

Which leads me to wonder whether peace is desired,

With every bomb dropped and each rocket fired.

These wars have carried on for eons ‘til today,

I wonder if they really know any other way.

While their innocent suffer and hatred is bred,

I doubt they will stop until all sides are dead.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

War Damages More Than Earth And Enemy

War damages more than earth and enemy.

Its scars not always visible disfigure,

Taking more than life and limb.

Those once docile and kind seethe with anger

Tearing family, home and heart to shreds.

Longing to coddle the child we once knew

We only serve to alienate.

As a result we remain silent,

Helpless against the inner demons that torment.

We pray they make it back home in one piece,

Yet coming to terms with that which we cannot see

…There is now way to prepare for.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Patriotic (Acrostic)

Purveyors of hate

Attempt to intimidate those of unlike minds–

Turning to violence and angry rhetoric to force their points-of-view.

Reality eludes them as they long for their diluted utopia.

I do not despise my country nor my brothers,

Only those despots among us that desire to bastardize it in their image.

They and they alone are treasonous,

Ignorant and insidious,

Corrupting all that is good in the name of the flag.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~