Can you imagine a country;
A system where money…
Profit is its religion,
I certainly can.
Take a look at what we’ve become
America, owned by corporations
Leaving its citizens rummage through their trash.
Is this what the promise was
Suffering under the greed of oligarchs?
Maybe not, but this is precisely who we are.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Things of dreams, of hopes,
This life I live and all that I have,
The promise of America, a ghost long dead.
Stripped of humanity, stripped of dignity, I see the pain in her eyes;
Mine tear for her, for the psychopath she has become,
She hates her children, punishing them for their ignorance.
But who is to blame, we’ve offered our souls to the Devil with each election,
Perpetuating our own destruction, more of the same does not breed change.
Perhaps I am guilty as any choosing to write as my protest.
Is my hope to inspire sufficient?
Only time will tell.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Problem…solution
Our history makes it clear
The Boston Tea Party
The same kind of oppression
A few hundred years later
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Vultures every one, they pluck at the carcass.
Oh yes, it is dead and has been for some time,
But they choose to masquerade it in lively rhetoric.
Speaking not of how they will resuscitate the corpse
They prefer to spew bile at those they accuse of murdering it.
Solving nothing, they offer up a civics lesson as hope,
A promise of a return to days long gone by.
They know this can never be,
That we should never return to the cesspool of the past that got us here,
Still they desire with a selfish heart, to thrust this upon us.
No longer a land, by the people, of the people, for the people,
We have devolved into a country of the corporation,
By the corporation, for the corporation.
Our politicians, beholden to these behemoths disregard the people,
Believing their constituents too inept to notice.
Sadly, our elections show they are too often right.
Seats of government are filled with crazies, radicals and thieves
Looking to promote their own self-interests,
Their own delusional ideals,
The interests of those that bought their loyalty.
Their records show nothing but opposition to the other side,
No compromise, no debate, just blatant obstruction,
This they do, all the while claiming to be patriots and waving their tattered flags.
Perhaps we are as much to blame for this violent death as they.
Each vote cast inflicts another gangrenous wound on this once vibrant body.
I fear it too late for meaningful change.
Our young prefer social media and video games to interest in things political.
What the future holds is anyones guess,
But with crystal ball in hand I foretell a funeral, the body in shrouds,
No taps being played, no mourners present to pay their last respects,
They can’t because they are too busy texting and watching youtube to notice.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Country on the brink
Middle-class being trampled
Extinction awaits
Corporate greed at a high
Climbing the backs of workers
Shareholders don’t care
Its all about their returns
Screw blood, sweat, and tears
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Respect for the earth
Our resources limited
Profit is the king
Nature loses to business
When money does the talking
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
It’s not the shopping
The shiny black Friday deals
Material wants
Created by corporate greed
For the bloating of coffers
It’s for gratitude
Communion with ones you love
Appreciation
Sadly we tend to forget
With every new commercial
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Corporate muscles flexed once again,
Trampling the rights of the common man.
What fools believe that corporations are people?
Why does one person’s belief trump that of another?
Where is the judicial in all of this?
Are they not charged with protecting the people’s rights?
They have become political tyrants,
Partisan and putrid as the legislative and executive.
“We The People” has become a joke;
Something relegated to the past,
Something we look back fondly on that once existed,
But sadly exist no more.
Individuals have no power to enact change
Where money and business rule.
Silenced by the dollar, we are ignored.
Was this erected in our framework,
Was this what the founders intended,
That man should be subjugated by greed and profit?
We cry foul at those who infringe on human and civil rights,
Yet we are nothing but hypocrites,
Infringing on the rights of our own.
There is no fairness under the law,
There is no justice under the law,
Unless you can afford to buy it.
Raise the gavel…
We’ve sold out to the highest bidder!
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
A dot on the map,
Another town with an odd name,
A place people pass through,
Ignored on their way somewhere else.
This was years ago;
O’ the town is still there,
But gone is its charm.
Gone are the things I loved most about it,
Gone are the wonderful pines
Standing tall next to Beal’s Hardware Store.
Gone is the pure cedar creek,
Gone are the open spaces,
Gone are the mom and pop stores dotting Main Street,
Gone are quaint family owned restaurants,
Gone is Porcellini’s Farm Market and Nursery,
Gone is Armand’s Auto Body,
Gone is Duffy’s Yacht Bar,
Gone is the wildlife preserve,
Gone are the wetlands,
Gone is the egret,
Gone are the scenic views unless you can afford them,
Gone are the commercial fishermen and clammers,
Their way of life is dying.
The pines have been bulldozed for Walmart,
Beal’s shuttered because they couldn’t compete with Home Depot,
Porcellini’s wilted and blew away
Armand passed and no one wanted to take up his fight
Duffy’s dried up under the pressure of Applebee’s,
A beautiful way of life was strangled and buried,
Caving in under the weight of corporations.
They don’t care about us…profits are their only friend.
We see it happen everyday,
In small towns all across America.
Towns founded on long time local businesses
Bankrupt because they can’t compete.
Local people forced to settle for less and pay more.
Some say, “If they don’t come here they will just go somewhere else”.
“What about the jobs?”
What about them?
Maybe you would have to commute to work,
But at least our town would still be–our town,
A place we would be proud to call home.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
~
Poetry Prompt #2 – The Places We Are by We Drink Because We’re Poets
Dom DiFrancesco 