The cardboard roof does little to keep the icy rain and bone-chilling cold from compounding his pain. Looked upon as a piece of worthless trash, he is invisible to passersby..
Perhaps if they realized they were just one paycheck away from his Hell, they’d offer him a bit more sympathy.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Trembling with fear as he stood precariously on his tiptoes, the rope tightening with every stumble. Gerald could hear the sounds of laughter and chiding erupt behind him from the white-hooded cowards.
Why the uproar over the Stars and Bars? Because lynching was commonplace only a handful of decades ago.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
COMMENTARY:
It is very easy for one to dismiss the feelings of others when they have not walked in their shoes, especially if they are white.
It’s hard to believe, but up through the mid 1930s the hanging (lynching) of blacks in the deep south was not at all uncommon. This is certainly not long enough for the memory to fade as I’m certain that there are those still alive today that can remember the horrors of seeing or hearing about friends and loved ones who met their maker at the end of the racists noose.
We are fast to criticize the protests of an entire race of people because of a few bad apples, but this in my mind does not diminish the validity of their cause. Look black history in this country. They were not brought here of their own volition, they were enslaved for more than two centuries, then treated like second class citizens until the 1960s and many would claim that they still are right up until today. This I cannot dispute as I for one have never walked even a single day in their shoes.
Feelings of despair
Brought on by this hectic world,
Hopelessness abounds.
Could our connectedness be to blame;
Glowing screens of every shape and size?
Even in sleep there is no rest
For the modern mind will not quiet.
Discerning truth from fiction is ever more daunting
With the right and left screaming for attention.
I’ve forgotten what silence is like,
No notifications, no ringing, no television
…A simpler time.
Could it be time to power off
Leaving all things electronic black and lifeless?
It’s undeniable that those times were happier,
That families talked and people listened.
We walked with our heads up and smiles on our faces
Instead of head down and into poles.
Maybe twenty four hour news, tweets and likes are a cancer
Feasting on our teetering sanity.
I am a realist, I know the past is the past
To which we will never return,
But maybe a little self imposed downtime is in order
Just for a bit of nostalgia.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
There is good and bad
In everything in this life
Be cautious with blame
It can destroy what is good
Just as easily as bad
Know the difference
Between what’s fact and fiction
Lives can hinge on it
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Somewhere in my brain
A novel waits to be born
Playing hide and seek
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
I live life walking amongst the masses
Seeing stories in every face,
In every wrinkle, smile, frown,
In every scar and freckle,
Real or imagined they speak to me.
Their silence, writing volumes,
Horror, action, romance, fact, fiction,
Genre’–It is for me to decide,
Bending reality into a thing of make believe.
My entertainment is paramount,
Turning the commonplace to adventure,
Breathing life into the mundane.
This is the art, the medium unimportant,
Though mine is of the word.
Looking in the mirror
You could not possibly see what I see,
For it lives only in my mind
Until it boils over onto paper.
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 