Do you know the cost
Hatred, discrimination
Rot society
Licensing vile factions
To spew ugly rhetoric
We hear this danger
From the pinnacle to base
Brothers and sisters
Singled out for their difference
Treated as misfits…pariahs
Leadership for all
A political promise
Faded at “I will”
We’re racing to the bottom
Tethered to an ignorant
Explain your blindness
Your willingness to sell out
Friends and family
On the words of a blowhard
Who we now call President
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
I see the beauty
Surrounding in rainbow hues
Muted by the pain
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Blood red,
The rainbow bleeds
A river born of hate.
You dare not question God,
He is perfect,
He is perfection by your own admission.
How then are they an abomination?
Are they not created by God,
Are they not flesh and blood and bone,
Are they not born,
Do they not die?
You…yes you are the blasphemers!
You will swim in the lake of fire on judgement day!
How dare you question God!
How dare you judge His perfect creations,
Taking their lives as if they were nothing.
If God truly is omnipotent,
Then they are just as worthy in His eye as you are,
Deserving the respect,
The honor
And the love
Afforded to all the children of God.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
We look for problems
In things we don’t understand,
Then try to solve them.
Irrational fears drive us
To discriminate by law
Or and religion.
This won’t make them go away,
They’ve always been here,
But we’ve been too blind to see.
Maybe love is the answer.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Criminalizing
Through state-sanctioned prejudice
“Gay” is not a crime
~
A nation in regression
Will be ravaged from within
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Civil rights movement
Alive and well in our young
Picking up the torch
We hoped these days passed
Only to smoulder again
Into raging fire
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Labels separate
Segregation of masses
For the unknowing
Republican, democrat,
Gay, straight, rich, poor, black or white
This life and body
Are but temporary things
Gone in an instant
What is left behind
Spirit and spirit alone
Each one is the same
Void of race, creed and color
Void of all man’s influence
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Our tide, in great waves rolls out,
Back to a dark and murky ocean.
So long we have struggled to crawl from the slime
To a place of light and enlightenment in this New World.
Holding up the Statue of Liberty as a sign of hope,
As a sign of our lust for freedom and equality,
We are showered in a torrent of our own hypocrisy.
There are brothers and sisters among us
That still struggle for whole-hearted inclusion.
Cast to the fringes they are ostracized and criticized
For their God-instilled proclivities.
As men, who are we to be judge and jury of our peers,
This was not ordained upon us by the Creator!
Time and again we wander this rocky treacherous road
Seeking to impose man’s prejudices upon men.
Would Christ whom you hold so dear have been this cold,
Tossing his brethren out into the desert?
You dredge up this muck with arrogance under the guise of freedom
Plotting all the time to shackle others for your cause.
Put yourself in your adversaries shoes,
Do they not feel worn out and ragged?
Early in this twenty first century I was optimistic,
Hopeful that common sense and compassion would prevail,
But now I am left disgusted and embarrassed.
Is this what America has devolved into,
A nation of oppression, prejudice and inequality
Based on twisted interpretations of God?
A travesty we have become…indeed!
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Discrimination
By religious objection
Legally sanctioned
Isn’t it time we grew up
And let bygones be bygones
Yet some of us can’t
Gays can be refused service
In Arizona
That is if the law passes
Welcome back to the stone age
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
~
AUTHOR’S NOTE: For those that are interested here is a link to the story that prompted me to write this piece. Arizona is placing a bill in front of the governor for her signature or veto that allows individuals, businesses and religious institutions to deny service or admission, primarily to members of the LGBT community so long as they can show that their discriminatory actions were prompted by their religious convictions. This is disgraceful in my opinion and certainly does not make me proud to live in this state.
How joyous the day equality overcame hatred,
Though with sadness I ask, “Why was it even necessary?”
We had not…no we have not moved beyond prejudice!
Replacing one group of brothers and sisters with another does not absolve us!
Oh yes! The faces are different, but the name is the same
And this–we call this progress?
Do not think me ungrateful…I am proud,
Though disheartened by so slim a margin,
Yet this is a triumphant day to be sure.
Still–there is so much softening to be done to the callous heart.
“All men are created equal” so proudly declared by so many
Is still, but a dream should you not fit their mould of convention.
Speaking as though preference of the heart is chosen
Shows their narrowness of mind.
It is not choice, it is ingrained by nature!
It is not a flaw nor is it an abomination,
It is who they are, just as you are how you were born.
That which you do not wish to understand should not draw ire,
But instead your silence…with our profound appreciation.
The time of state sanctioned intolerance is in it’s death throes
Though this alone will not change those ignorant of mind.
Yes, this battle will rage on,
For many, long after they are gone,
But know dear friends that bigotry and hate can not prevail
In the presence of humanity and love.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Authors note: I had been debating whether to write this poem firstly, because I am not a member of the LGBT community and secondly, because I don’t pretend to speak for or have any first hand knowledge of what they have gone through, but then I thought why not, we are all human beings, we all came into this world in the same way and we will all leave it the same way. I have been an observer of this struggle for equality for a very long time and quite frankly found it disgusting that it ever existed in the first place. To add to the distastefulness is the fact that public polling, for the longest time, showed that more than 50% of those polled were in favor of continuing state sanctioned discrimination. In America, we struggled for our freedom from oppression and proudly proclaim in our Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal” and yet this freedom from oppression and equality only held true if you were a God fearing heterosexual apparently. This ideal was an absolute disgrace. So long as the parties are adults, what right does any human being have to prevent another human being from marrying the one that they truly love? Religious institutions may choose not to marry same sex couples before their altars, but they surely have no standing to prevent them before the law. Of course this is simply one man’s opinion, but I stand behind it wholeheartedly. Congratulations to all of you, it has been a very long time coming and you justly deserve this landmark win.
Dom DiFrancesco 