Tag Archives: dying

Over A Barrel

Coffee thick and strong,

Cooked over an panhandlers stove.

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A barrel fire for warmth,

Trash confiscated as fuel.

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Emitting the foulest of odors,

Room for but a few.

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Night frigid under tenement shadows,

Shanties erected haphazard.

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Rags moth eaten and ragged,

Held up by anything scavenged.

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Shelters vulnerable to the storm,

Little choice in the matter.

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Homes taken,

Jobs shipped overseas.

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Children hungry and cold,

Let down by an unsympathetic people.

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A movie scene?

No, these are real lives.

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Real people,

This is life on the street.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Forgotten

Little one,

You never asked to be brought into this world.

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Cold and cruel,

Born on the wrong side of the tracks.

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A mother’s love,

Can feed the soul, but the body still craves.

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Too young to speak,

Still your cries speak louder than any words.

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Sustenance is your right,

Denial would only draw covenant with your demise.

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Dying is inevitable,

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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On bended knee,

With hands grasped in prayer,

I have asked for absolution.

Hoping that there is life for me,

Beyond this earthly Hell.

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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!

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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.

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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 ~~

Battle Scarred – A Tanka

Image Credit: nationalgeographic.com

Image Credit: nationalgeographic.com

Names long forgotten

Came screaming back to haunt me

As if yesterday

Friends lost on the battlefield

Turn dreams to guilty nightmares

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Ode to Alicia

O’ what sorrows hang under the placid moon,

Beguiled as we wait before an open tomb.

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Unexpectedly passing in horrid way,

O’er the hilltop, contorted and lifeless you lay.

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Cowardly murderer ran with haste from his deed,

Hiding as rats will do in thicket and weed.

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Hide from God! You most certainly cannot,

Judgement at the gates will harshly begot.

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O’ dear Alicia…how young and innocent you were,

Just a child– Undeserving of a life to pass as a blur.

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While the foul miscreant thrives and lives on,

Corrupt of conscience, never considered you were gone.

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O’ how the parents grieve for their little lost soul,

All while this pariah slithers into Satan’s black hole.

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Squalid tomb– Why take solace in so young a life?

So cold, so final, no comfort to the progenitors strife!

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Judgement befitting the crime, our earthly courts did not levy,

Cries for hanging be raised at the hands of a justified bevy.

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No! Justice in this lifetime is not to be,

Pray God, Hell’s hanging tree hath a place for he.

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As the tomb eternal be sealed from the light,

Candles pay homage to a life once so bright.

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A place be laid for you Alicia…at the foot of God’s throne,

For all to take comfort that you will never be alone.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Family Honor

Two star struck lovers bequeathed to the night,

Passion, deceit for to hide out of sight.

She…questionable virtue…from the wrong side of the tracks,

Parental displeasure of refinement she lacks.

Refinement nor virtue does fail to impart,

For love…it does blind in matters of the heart.

Inconsolable his father takes matters to hand,

This tryst must dissolve on this he demands.

Honor of family trumps sanctity of life,

She must be parlayed before he takes her his wife.

So twisted was his mind he could scarcely think clear,

The evil he did plot against his son held so dear.

Blackness in his heart…the tramp won’t be missed,

When…how…on the table pound his fist!

Finally he takes her, it matters not from where,

Kicking and screaming he has her by the hair.

Raging and seething to the lake they did go,

Softness of ground, so much easier to sow.

She fought for her life, to the end no avail,

Fate she did meet by his father…did impale.

Twisted face…drove the father to remorse,

For the good of the family, I must stay the course.

Sweat pouring down, the hole he did dig,

Shovel like a flash moving dirt, leaf and twig.

Body limp and lifeless, a dirty silent face,

Angelic in its beauty he laid her into place.

What have I done as each shovel flew,

Too late it was now there is nothing more to do.

Vial task now complete, heavy heart he did carry,

Back to his home…no one more the wary.

Son perplexed by absence, he couldn’t help but worry,

Where might she have gone, without trace, in a hurry.

For days upon end decline did his mood,

Nary desire for sleep, for water or for food.

His father stood watch as his son’s life did languish,

Conscience torn asunder he succumbed to his anguish.

Little time did it take for the boys light to fade,

Result of the father’s despondent bed that he made.

He buried his boy not long after this,

Family collapsed he was so sorely missed.

The father, for all his attempts to defend,

Suffered his sin, one he could never mend.

He passed like his son fairly soon thereafter,

Life spun out of control an irreparable disaster.

Hell most surely laid out it’s red carpet for him,

The Devil delighting in this most thoughtless of whims.

For all his grandiose and pompous plans he did draw,

He lost his family, his son, his life and beautiful daughter-in-law.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

A Leap Of Faith

A leap of faith,

Whether in love,

Whether in life,

Whether at death,

Waking is to plummet,

Headlong into the unforeseen.

A mystery without end,

Until we breathe our final breath,

Meeting whatever fortune,

We so feverishly wove,

Through thoughts and deeds,

Living absent of tomorrow,

We cannot know,

We cannot want to know,

What fate awaits,

On our final day.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Life in Time

Time, is it something we are given or something we keep?

We can not hold it,

We can not prolong it no matter how hard we try.

So many have tried and failed.

Kings in the belief they were gods,

Destined to live forever,

Believing they were divinely chosen,

But to no avail life slipped away from them.

The sands of time drizzled from between their gold adorned fingers,

Leaving their hearts empty and their hands cold,

This is as it always has been and always will be.

Our science can only sustain the life left in us,

When we are called to pass no method of man can save us.

Should we not then cherish the hours we spend in this world,

Accepting them as a gift to be received gratefully?

Nothing on this earth is forever.

We cannot keep time,

It was not given to us to be kept.

It was given instead to be enjoyed,

Lived to the fullest in harmony with our fellow transients.

Who like us will run out of the gift of time, some day, some hour,

Only to join our ancestors in eternity.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~