Tag Archives: hunger

Gone Are Those Days

Gone are those days

You know…the ones where our children are better off than we are.

What is better for them,

Saddled with debt for an education that guarantees them nothing,

Grown children living with their parents,

Prospects for their futures clouded,

Shadowed by unceasing war?

For many taking up arms for their country the only way to survive

Taking injury and death as necessary risks.

Is this what we wanted for our children,

Is this what our parents had hoped for us?

Where do they go from here in this country divided?

Everything is in turmoil!

The government is polarized,

The people brainwashed by extremist media.

Bankers, the greatest threat as described by our founders

Have slithered their way into our capital’s marble halls.

So much promise has been squandered.

This once great nation is sacrificing its young

And for what, pieces of gold,

A return to a past that has long since died,

Survival of the fittest where the rich become richer

And everyone else becomes irrelevant.

This is not the country I knew and loved,

It is an abomination of the worst kind

Feasting on the bones and blood of our children

To fuel its unquenchable lust and greed.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Echoes Of Laughter

Echoes of laughter

Smiling faces of children

–Innocence at play

Sights, sounds of another time

When being a kid was cool

The cries of hunger

Tears streaming down sunken cheeks

–Modern travesty

While the rich still get richer

Children starve for no reason

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Thirst and Hunger

Thirst is not a disease

Nor hunger a plague waged as a personal attack..

The dirty and downtrodden are not animals with opposing thumbs

Foraging through trash bins for food.

Their children are not parasites to be frowned upon!

They love just as you do with the same wants and needs.

Hands cracked and calloused know hard work.

Many toil hard and long for the barest of necessities

Only to fall short, thankful for assistance.

Yet you despise the poor collectively,

Lazy, blood suckers, bums, leeches,

Used as terms of endearment.

Speaking as though you know them or their circumstance

You display nothing but ignorance.

What do you know of their lives, their pain, their poverty?

Many are victims of economics,

Failing of health or disability,

Casualties of familial history,

Deprived of education,

Forgotten or blamed by the very souls with the power to change.

Greed and loathing blind,

Banishing compassion and humanity to the pits of hell.

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Peeling Back The Layers

Peeling back the layers

Like an onion of marble, brick, wood,

Concrete, steel and plaster.

What lies beneath this man-made skeleton?

Flesh, blood, bone,

Hopes, dreams, promise,

Failure, disappointment, longing,

Pain, suffering and sorrow,

Wrapped in the package human.

Wealth nor status makes one immune.

Life infects rich and poor alike,

Birth and death spare no one,

Entering into their pact with nothing

And fulfilling the contract with no reward.

These truths are guaranteed

Despite a desire to bury them in denial, religion or alcohol.

Make what you will of your life

Ignore those that cry to you with outstretched hands,

Divert your eyes from malnourishment,

Turn your back on humanities fallen,

Do this and more without conscience

As a soulless miscreant is bound to do.

This is your choice.

Or join this race we all run…offering,

Time, money, love,

Compassion, sympathy, understanding,

A helping hand, encouragement,

As much or as little as you have,

This is what it means to be human,

To be in communion,

Asking nothing in return.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Scavenging

Scavenging,

Through trash bins,

Rubbish heaps,

Loitering beyond alley doors,

Waiting for “the good stuff”.

Jagged nails,

Through fingerless gloves,

Sort through treasures,

Maybe a doughnut,

Scrap of bread,

Half eaten burger,

A meal fit for a king.

Seen on steam grate mattresses,

Fetal curl for warmth;

Passersby arc wide birth

To avoid their touch.

Rain draws trash bag slickers,

Doorways, cardboard,

Rags for umbrellas,

Taxi’s thrown sludge sprays the invisible

With cities dirt and grim.

Will they be here tomorrow?

Will anyone notice their absence?

As their shopping cart sits idle

Ravaged by fellow unseen.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Are They Asking Too Much

Image Credit: lesiva.deviantart.com

Image Credit: lesiva.deviantart.com

Parents bleed failure

Shattered by their children’s cries

Hungry and dirty

Tortured by their poverty

They look above for relief

But prayers are ignored

They don’t qualify for aid

How poor must you be

In this, the greatest nation

Before they are helped

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~