O’ the tangled web
Woven for personal gain
Clouding our judgement
Until we find it’s too late
And regret has bankrupt us
This, the path we choose
Chosen many times before
Has not deterred us
We are creatures of habit
Believing a fool’s wisdom
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
False security
Fanaticism disguised
In propaganda
Confirming the masses fears
They so skillfully crafted
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Honor among thieves
Missing from our politics
The lies keep coming
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
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 ~~
What is it they want;
To live under a bubble
Of pure shiny white?
Existing void of color
A Leave it to Beaver world.
Stirring up hatred,
This group or that is to blame,
Banish them for good.
Spy your own family tree
And you just might be amazed.
What are they after
When they’re stomping on the poor,
Calling them lazy,
Treating each as a moocher
Unworthy of compassion.
Perpetuating
Disgraceful stereotypes.
Shameless in their rant
African Americans,
Mexicans and the Chinese.
Supremacists rise
Rallying around their bile,
But they take no blame,
They’re taken out of context
They would like you to believe.
War, war, war, war, war
Look at their warmongering,
Death brings them such joy.
It’s not theirs that fight and die
They are ours, they’re yours and mine!
Privatize they cry,
Programs for the public good,
Vouchers for us all.
Business doesn’t work for us
It’s all about the profit.
FDR was right,
To enact social reforms
A cure for our ills.
Keeping the wealthy in check
For the benefit of all.
Watch as fortunes fall,
Not those of robber barons
But instead yours–mine.
The oligarchs won’t feel it
This is by their own design.
Sadly we’ve stepped back
Trusting our fates to the rich.
How foolish we are!
Painful lessons are ne’er learned
Thus are destined to repeat.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Government in bed
With corporate America
Fascism reborn
Mussolini may be dead
But his beliefs are alive
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Pondering things more now than ever
I’m finding out how little I know.
I don’t understand human nature;
Its incessant need for power,
Its unquenchable greed,
Its innate ability to hate,
Its thirst to subjugate others.
Look no farther than the news;
War is spreading at a rapid pace,
Our young men and women are sent to fight,
For what…our freedom?
Only true if freedom flows from a pump.
Their blood is being exchanged for oil,
Sounds criminal unless you are a capitalist.
Poverty is running rampant,
The rich are getting richer
While the middle-class drowns
And the poor are being mowed under.
Our children are sunk into debt
For the privilege of an education.
Education is not a privilege but a right,
Only a fool would think otherwise…
You laugh…
Well then, a fool I must be!
With no where else to turn
We look toward the government,
Corrupt, divisive, they are of no help.
No! Don’t dare pull the party card,
Your blind faith in either cesspool is deplorable.
Don’t think for a second that they care about us,
Most of us don’t have the money to buy that kind of loyalty.
These behemoths only tolerate us because they have to.
Lobbyists and corporations are their real audience
Purchasing the destruction of our environment,
Sending our jobs overseas,
Corralling wealth for the pleasure of the minority
All for the destruction of the majority.
We…are…expendable!
In the end, what do I know?
I know what this country…this world could be,
It wouldn’t take much,
Just a little love,
A little compassion,
A little humanity,
But then…I am a dreamer
Who just realized…
How little I really know.
~~ 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 ~~
In this gilded age
What is old is new again.
Worship of the golden calf
Has supplanted our rights.
Blood shed over these many years
Washed away with the bleach of power.
Fault lies squarely with us,
We allow their deceptions to dissuade.
Staying home we complain
Or cast vote against our own interest.
Each time we give them greater power
Plunging ourselves ever deeper into their pit.
How long will it be before it is too late,
When our eyes are so shielded as to be blind.
You think they are not displaying hateful smiles;
Proud of their accomplishments…
Give yourselves a pat on the back.
You believe that they care about you;
Their coffers are their only love.
Spending to kill their opposition…
This is their way and you are but pawns.
Their complicit media does nothing to inform,
Deceiving and perpetuating their propaganda.
With a populace too lazy to seek the truth,
They are easily swooned by soundbites.
Repeat them often enough and people believe,
How sad this truly is.
We base decisions on 140 characters…or less,
We take statements as fact from anonymous sources.
As a people, we claim to appreciate due diligence,
But not when it comes to those that govern us.
Quick to believe rumors, mass emails and tweets,
We call ourselves informed.
What is it Jefferson said about an enlightened citizenry?
“…it is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.”
Many of us have proved to be a disappointment…
Social media is not enough, soundbites are not enough;
Ignorance is not an excuse!
You shout your patriotism as if it’s fact
While wrapping yourself in the American flag.
Meanwhile you seek to distance yourself from the poor,
Treating them all as abusers of our system, a drain on society,
Unworthy of saving….better left for dead.
Our health and security you put on the chopping block
Or sell off for the profit of privateers.
You desire to corporatize the education of our young
For so long a public mainstay,
Now raped and pillaged then labeled dysfunctional.
You should be ashamed!
Every institution we hold dear is up for sale.
One day as you enter your sunset years
You will look back, perhaps longingly
And wish for those things that you slaughtered
Out of pure ignorance and deadliest of sins
–Greed.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Lest we forget him
Michael Brown finally rests
But the fight goes on
His family still in mourning
Must live a life without him
This is a disgrace
As a nation we should weep
Drowning in our tears
Not for Ferguson alone
But for ourselves and country
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 