Tag Archives: childhood

The Smell Of Baked Bread

The smell of baked bread

Like perfume of memory

Grandma at the stove

O’ how joyful was childhood

When things were much simpler

Adulthood does dull

Senses fade to the background

Turning cynical

Happiness replaced by stress

O’ how soon we do forget

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Don’t You Ever Learn (Epistle)

WDBWP Monday Poetry Prompt #22: What Would You Say to You?

~

I

Don’t you ever learn

You spent our childhood always trying to please others

But where did that get you

What about pleasing us

What about it

II

Our teen years weren’t much different

Still trying to please the same people

Ignoring what we wanted

You acted like some kind of martyr

I don’t remember anyone asking for it

III

We had things we wanted to do

Sports, career, dreams that should have been a reality

And what did we do

We didn’t follow through

We ignored our own desires

IV

Whose fault was this

It was nobodies but ours

To blame anyone else would be a lie

We didn’t stand up for what we wanted

So shut up and deal with it

V

Its nice though that we finally wised up

At least a little…maybe

We didn’t turn out half bad

We got smart and realized we missed her

And did something about it before she got away for good

VI

She’s put up with us now for over 24 years

And hasn’t killed us yet

Although we probably deserved it

A long time ago

We can be high maintenance you know

VII

And our children

What can we say

Thank God, the stars, dumb luck that they are great kids

The greatest treasure we could have asked for

A blessing if there ever was one

VIII

I’m thankful that they didn’t turn out like us

Well–At least not entirely

They did get some of their mother’s traits

Mostly the good ones…quiet she might be listening

Really, they don’t know how lucky they are

IX

After all is said-and-done

We should be happy with how things turned out

Family is what is important

In spite of us we are doing pretty darn well in that area

A loving wife, wonderful children and a comfortable life

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Simpler Time

To lay in the tall grass

Soaking up summer sun,

I recall a time so much simpler than today,

Carefree, up at dawn, out, exploring,

Seeking out new worlds, new adventures.

Calls for lunch went unheeded,

There just wasn’t the time.

Mother knew, mother always knew

This was part of the plan.

Friends and imagination consumed,

My world for the taking,

King, conqueror, soldier

How I long for those days.

Today kings become tyrants,

Conquerors commit genocide

And soldiers really die.

Games of youth were just silly fun,

There were no consequences,

There was no death, no tyranny.

At the end of the day we’d shake hands,

Smile and run home for dinner,

Dreaming of tomorrow,

Dreaming of our next conquest

From the safety of our beds.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

To Be A Child Again

Image Credit: fastcompany.com

Image Credit: fastcompany.com

Do you ever reminisce about your childhood?

Rockem-Sockem Robots, Spirograph, Lincoln Logs,

Candy cigarettes, wax lips, pixie sticks,

Banana seats on bikes, slick tires and sissy bars,

Bell bottoms, Converse, crew cuts,

Bouffants, Brill Cream, electric rollers,

Station wagons, record players, eight tracks,

No seat belts, no car seats, laying on the rear deck

to see out the back window,

Sneaking your parents smokes

And maybe their booze,

Just for fun,

Never worrying for our safety.

Do you ever reminisce about your childhood?

I do.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Friends for Life

Lifelong friend,

We speak without speaking,

Share a history we both have lived,

Characters in a story that we both have told.

Our parents cut from a similar mould,

Blue collar, God fearing, salt of the earth

We are cut from that same cloth.

Neighbors as children and again as adults,

More like sisters than our sisters,

Distance only a temporary hindrance,

How peculiar our bond.

What path our futures may hold, I do not know,

What I do know is that you will color mine,

And I yours,

Lifelong friend.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

* Written from my wife’s point of view about her best friend who she has know since she was 6 years old.  They grew up together almost 3,000 miles (and 40 years ago) from where we live now and now her best friend and her husband live waking distance from us.  That is a friendship, one which I never had.   I think this is wonderful.

Resplendence or Regret

By D. R. DiFrancesco

 

Do you like what you see,

Molded after what you dreamed I’b be,

Sheltered behind walls of stone.

 

My wings clipped,

Meant to keep me safe,

Instead, caging my will to fly.

 

I knocked on fates door,

Only to have it slammed angrily in my face,

Resigned to a destiny of civilized certainty.

 

Is this the path I would have chosen?

Maybe, but that was for me to adjudge,

I never had the chance to find out.

 

Adolescence enslaved me,

Chaining my desires, preventing them from soaring,

Pushing me in directions that you found acceptable.

 

Age held no respite,

Desire for approval ingrained into my being,

Second guessing decisions through your minds eye.

 

Passage to maturity should not proceed this way,

Life’s lessons are meant to form us,

To be our guide through our metamorphosis to adulthood.

 

Despite being bound to the past,

Handcuffed to the vision of what I was supposed to be.

I have broken free of the iron shackles of my youth.

 

With no time for regrets I have freed me,

Unlocking my hopes from the dungeon of childhood,

Escaping the hangman that would have stifled my future.

 

Look back I would not change a thing,

Realizing that your protectiveness although misguided, decided who I became,

Leaving it up to me to alter the path on which I strode.

 

In strength I have become myself,

Confronting my shortcomings with an iron fist,

Finding the goodness in what I have become.

 

Harboring no compunction,

You did what you did out of love for my well-being,

Although flawed doing what you thought was best.

 

For this I thank you.