Racism lives on
Examples emerge daily
On the local news
Has anything really changed
Except the wall calendar
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Tag Archives: culture
Fortified By Walls
Fortified by walls
Convention dictates our roles
We are blind robots
Afraid to step out of the norm
For fear of ridicule
So who wrote these rules
Some wizard behind curtains
Calling all the shots
Break the mold–just live and love
Regardless of your gender
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
To Conform Is To Lie To Yourself
To conform is to lie to yourself,
To suck the joy out of this finite life.
It was never meant to be locked in a cage,
It was never meant to be stuffed in a box
Shrouded behind impenetrable walls
That blot out the sun and what lay beyond.
That is not living, it is merely subsisting.
Yet this is what our fears, our parents, our cultures preach,
Conform or you will be treated as an outcast.
Well then…perhaps an outcast is what I long to be.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Does Shedding Of Tears (Tanka)
Does shedding of tears
Show a man’s human weakness
How sad the question
Emotional detachment
Dictated by our culture
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
We Claim Our Culture (Tanka)
We claim our culture
The cause of bad behavior
This is no excuse
Still we refuse to let go
Because it’s how it’s always been
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
What Lies On Distant Shores
What lies on distant shores,
Buckets, pigeon holes, troughs for segregation.
Language, dress, birthplace do not an enemy make.
Where came this bitter misdirection?
Religion, culture, song, dance,
These are things of man’s creation.
Strip naked man and woman–
Lay them bare of their mortal inventions.
Confiscate their language, dress, birthplace,
Expropriate their religion, culture, song, dance,
Take all they have of this world;
What have they left?
Blood and skin and bone;
That which crumbles with inevitable death.
Hopes and dreams, emotions;
intangibles that define humanness.
Air, food, water, shelter;
That which sustains us.
Boundaries of man hold no sway over these.
We are but one species,
Born and consumed in life,
Until the day we return home
To the dust from whence we came.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
The League Of Nations – A Tanka
This league of nations
Diversity on the streets
American life
The greatness of our nation
Is its mixed soup of cultures
~
~~Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Heart Of New York
Car horns, sirens, shouts
Muffled by flimsy windows
Third floor apartment
Crowds rushing uptown downtown
Skyscrapers and tenements
Highlight the landscape
Architecture old and new
Music and culture
Time Square, Central Park, New York
The greatest city on earth
~
~~ Dominic DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 