Tag Archives: civil rights

Round And Round The Story Goes

Round and round the story goes

One that’s as old as time

Where it stops nobody knows

Causing tensions to climb

 

These 50 odd years since civil rights

Have made so little change

Hatred between black and white

Festers like the mange

 

Fear of lynching may have passed

But fear exists no less

While walking the street they’re still harassed

No matter how finely dressed

 

Ask Sandra Bland or Michael Brown

Oh wait they cannot speak

Too many names buried in the ground

The future seems so bleak

 

Justify and deny all you wish

Your blindness it won’t erase

200 years by chains and switch

Like animals kept in place

 

Nothing has changed in modern day

Ask Eric, Tamir or Trayvon

It matters not what any of us say

Because either way they’re gone

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Repent

Repent!

There is no repentance,

There is no civility only cruelty.

The cud we chew is our own

Regurgitated repeatedly

Until even we believe the vile spew.

This once great nation has become caustic

Poisoning the lifeblood of its citizens.

O’ how embarrassed I am

To be counted amongst you.

What we viewed as progress

Proved to be nothing but a facade.

The world sees us

Just as ugly as our past portrays.

We fool no one with our mask;

Smiling with our hand outstretched in friendship

Whilst clutching a dagger behind our backs.

Then, with great surprise, things turn sour!

We gasp in horror at the cruelty of our adversaries,

Castigating those we exploit.

In denial we consider ourselves blameless

Arrogantly condemning our victims.

Their hatred runs deep and their memories are long.

As we learn not from our mistakes,

Repeated over and over we achieve the same result,

Setting ablaze modern day Rome,

And leaving its citizens to flee in horror.

 
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Sun is Setting

The sun is setting, bathing our fall in the last rays of day.

Still we sleep sound in the quiet of darkness,

Oblivious to what awaits

Even though it has been foretold by sages and fools.

This end will not come with the concussion of a bomb,

It will not be suffered by the bloodletting of a bullet

These would be less painful.

It will come to us by our own greed,

Our ignorance and inhumanity will trounce us,

Look at those that came before,

The great Roman Empire.

Where is it now?

Oh yes it exists in its crumbling ruins,

Disintegrating coins dredged from the bottom of the sea

And legendary despots littering history books.

The sun has set for them yet their kind still exists.

Look no further than America!

This land of so much promise has been duped,

Fooled by its aristocrats and their vast wealth.

They stoke the fires of hatred and prejudice to divide us

Until we become immune to the putrid bile they spew.

They trust that factless propaganda will be trusted,

That we won’t take the time to hold them accountable…

And they are right, we are sheep being lead to slaughter.

What will it take to wake us up from their fear?

We are arrogant and pathological in our policy,

Refusing to take blame for even the smallest thing.

Climate change is real say our climate scientists

Yet we deny it because we aren’t scientists.

ISIS did not sprout out of thin air,

We created it with our insatiable thirst for oil

And the deaths of those we were determined to depose.

Education, social security and Medicare are in danger

Due to their incessant need to privatize and profiteer.

Tell me, what did they do to make you trust blindly?

All they did was tell you whose fault it is,

What group to hate,

That social programs like socialism are evil,

That they will watch your back and protect you

While taking away your civil rights in subtle ways.

Their votes send your jobs away all the while you beg them to help you.

Really what did they give you to vote away your best interest?

Lower taxes, privatization of government services, more free trade and job loses,

The right to openly discriminate against your fellow Americans,

All under the guise of some imagined religious war.

I really don’t understand what has happened,

When we stopped being logical and informed,

When we started believing in the oligarch’s fairytales,

When we became cultists to the media.

All I know is that changes are coming

So be careful what you wish for.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Reaping What We Sow

Reaping what we sow;

Hatred only breeds hatred

As history proves.

See the neverending wars,

The eternal racism.

 

Turning a blind eye;

Pretending it doesn’t live

Does not make it true.

Ever since nine eleven

War has been never ceasing.

 

Ferguson…murder,

Baltimore, New York City

Charleston…again murder!

Racial hatred at its worst,

Plantation mentality.

 

This land of the free

Has sadly become a myth…

Just look at the news.

We are in shackles to war,

Racism, hatred and greed.

 

Sadly we don’t see

We are mice on the treadmill

Blindly taking bait.

I guess it really is true…

We are reaping what we’ve sown.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Times They Are A Changin

Times they are a changin,

An older guard struggles for relevance.

They long for the days of Reagan,

June Cleaver and Leave it to Beaver,

White picket fences and segregated neighborhoods,

Gays in the closet and women in the kitchen,

Marriage between one man one woman,

But O’ the times they are a changin.

Their anger turns extreme

Because their “perfect” little world is slipping away.

Reagan is gone,

But his policies live on that helped destroy this country,

Picket fences are in shambles after the housing collapse,

Racism is on your front page and you don’t like it,

The Cleavers and Leave it to Beaver

Are relegated to late night reruns…

Nobody buys this crap anymore,

Gays are our neighbors, they’re on TV, the radio, in politics…

The closet has been cleaned out,

Couches and fast food have left our kitchens cold and empty,

While John and Tom and Sue and Jane can say “I do” without shame.

So fight if you will, fight if you must, but…

O’ these times are a changin!

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Civil Rights Movement

Civil rights movement

Alive and well in our young

Picking up the torch

We hoped these days passed

Only to smoulder again

Into raging fire

.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Words Escape

Words escape,

Seeming pale and miniscule.

What to say would never be enough–

I’m sorry, immediately comes to mind.

Gone before your time,

How different might things have been

Or maybe nothing would have changed at all.

Narrow-mindedness and prejudice

Cannot be cured with words or pills.

Sadly your dream has still not been realized.

There are those that claim your struggle to be ancient history,

That you are equal, that you got everything you wanted.

This bile comes from the mouths of fools.

Why should any of this have been necessary,

In the eyes of God were you not always equal?

Why should you have had to be given anything,

Were not your rights endowed by the Lord God?

Only man–in his need to subjugate

Would be so arrogant as to play the Almighty!

This day of remembrance has not opened the eyes of many,

They find it a frivolous and inconvenient interruption.

Capitalism goes on with nary a missed step,

As profits never take a holiday,

How sad and disrespectful this is.

Dearest Dr. King, I am so terribly sorry.

There are no excuses for the tragedy of your death.

There are no excuses for the racism and ignorance that persists.

There are no excuses for your unfulfilled dream.

Thank God your words still resonate,

Thank God your message is still oft repeated,

For one day maybe the scourge that exists amongst us will die,

Turning your dream of so long ago

Into the reality that it was always destined to be.

God Bless You Dr. Martin Luther King

And with profound sadness,

I wish you a Happy Birthday.


~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Erasure (Acrostic)

Erased–blood stains and voices

Roadway washed clean by rain

Anger and outrage quelled

Silenced by media’s waning interest

Under the ground in which he’s buried roots still grow

Racism–spreading like crabgrass

Eviscerating the people of justice.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~