The Funeral Pall – A Haiku

Image Credit: zimbio.com

Image Credit: zimbio.com

The funeral pall

Somber in finality

Remember the good

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco

Nothing But Blackness – A Haiku

Image Credit: redbubble.com

Image Credit: redbubble.com

I draw closed my eyes

Seeing nothing but blackness

Is this destiny

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Syrian Injustice

Led by a despot

Innocent blood stains the streets

Cries for help ignored

Are the lives lost all for naught

Genocide begs a response

~

If not us then who

Each passing day brings more death

More graves to be dug

More mothers weeping their loss

The regime must abdicate

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

What Awaits

I do not pretend, to know the truth,

Anymore than you…or the sun…or the moon,

Proving nothing short of ignorance otherwise.

~

What I do know, is that death is inevitable;

Whether life be a second, a minute or decades,

Of this I am certain.

~

Just as I am certain of my origin;

Beyond progeny…beyond paternity,

My essence existed before that of this earthly vessel,

And will certainly continue beyond it’s worldly demise,

Our human science has assured.

~

I am, however steeped in uncertainty,

Uncertain of what lay in wait after this finite adventure.

~

Will I be swallowed by consuming blackness,

Drifting endlessly…disjointedly into nothingness?

~

Will I be welcomed at Heaven’s pearled gates,

Greeted with open arms into a paradise?

~

Maybe Hell hath set it’s sights on my mortal soul,

Repaying me for the sinful life I’ve led?

~

Or will my soul join with others

To live once again,

In the vessel of another of the newly-born?

~

These all, are questions of faith,

Your faith…my faith,

Questions for which I have no answers.

~

After a lifetime of curious inquiry,

I hold no greater insight into the afterlife,

Than were so endowed in me at my birth.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

A Mother’s Tears – A Haiku

Image Credit: youthvoices.net

Image Credit: youthvoices.net

Another one gone

A mother’s tears for her son

Shot dead in the night

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Over A Barrel

Coffee thick and strong,

Cooked over an panhandlers stove.

~

A barrel fire for warmth,

Trash confiscated as fuel.

~

Emitting the foulest of odors,

Room for but a few.

~

Night frigid under tenement shadows,

Shanties erected haphazard.

~

Rags moth eaten and ragged,

Held up by anything scavenged.

~

Shelters vulnerable to the storm,

Little choice in the matter.

~

Homes taken,

Jobs shipped overseas.

~

Children hungry and cold,

Let down by an unsympathetic people.

~

A movie scene?

No, these are real lives.

~

Real people,

This is life on the street.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Forgotten

Little one,

You never asked to be brought into this world.

~~

Cold and cruel,

Born on the wrong side of the tracks.

~~

A mother’s love,

Can feed the soul, but the body still craves.

~~

Too young to speak,

Still your cries speak louder than any words.

~~

Sustenance is your right,

Denial would only draw covenant with your demise.

~~

Dying is inevitable,

A fact of life, but a fate undeserved to one so young.

~~

Blamed for your station,

You live in the shadows,

Cursed by the sins of your father,

Left to scavenge at the fringes,

Only to be forgotten,

Or treated as a pariah,

By defect of conscience.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

In Remembrance

Ye stand erect or lay supine,

Worldly barrier to Heaven or Hell.

In hopes a life you lived sublime,

“Til the gates of pearl cannot we tell.

~~

Simple truth or solemn quote,

With chisel and hammer etched in stone.

A life as full and wholesome promote,

In passing ye set the living tone.

~~

In years to come when pall has passed,

A testament be left to remain.

Symbol of a life lived to outlast,

What flesh and bone cannot sustain.

~~

Though grass may grow to overgrown ,

And the marble be weathered and worn.

For a time to come the living will know,

When you died and when you were born.

~~

In this, ev’n the humble may gain solace,

Great riches nor fame are of import.

Most human of rituals must surely befall us,

Whence this stone stands in tribute and retort.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Vision in White

Light…blinding as weary eyes struggle to see

A vision from lore, dressed in white

Stands before me with outstretched hand

“Walk with me.”, he whispered

I, incapable of uttering a word,

Am I mute,

Am I stunned to silence

I cannot fathom

As unshod feet touch the naked floor

I place trembling hand– in hand

“Be not afraid.”, spoken with a tender smile

“I’m not.”, escapes from parched lips

Peace washes over me as I shuffle

Lead by the kindly stranger

Toward the light nearer and brighter

I was not afraid– to my surprise

Weariness replaced with joy

I longed to reach our unbeknownst destination

Enveloped in the warmth of the light

My Guide in white became clear

Eyes opened wide

Heaven lay boundlessly before me

I was in the hand of God

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Eternal Night

The question eternal,

What lay beyond the infinite night?

I peer Heavenward for the answer,

Pleading for an omnipotent retort,

Never to be realized.

~~

On bended knee,

With hands grasped in prayer,

I have asked for absolution.

Hoping that there is life for me,

Beyond this earthly Hell.

~~

Surely there must be more,

How cruel the joke,

Were Heaven the fodder of fairytales.

This must not be,

I refuse to succumb to disbelief!

~~

This night I will read the Book,

Comforting myself in it’s inspiration,

Denouncing the wickedness of my sins.

By immersion in the prose of Psalm 51,

Praying for the cleansing of my soul.

~~

I will not surrender faith,

To the folly of Satan’s game,

Committing myself to his depths of despair.

Surely this mustn’t be my destiny,

If I am to be a child of the everlasting God.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~