Tag Archives: ignorance

War

Race wars,

Culture wars,

Gender wars,

Drug wars,

War on freedom,

War on religion,

War on women,

War on drugs,

War on crime,

War on terror,

War, war, war–do you see the pattern!

Still we call ourselves peace-loving,

We call ourselves civilized.

Fighting against each other,

Fighting against our beliefs,

Fighting against enemies of our own design,

Intolerance of one another,

Physical and verbal violence

Waged against our own and the world,

Tell me–what is peace-loving and civilized about this?

We have been brainwashed–

Brainwashed by our government,

Brainwashed by the media,

Brainwashed by our own ignorance!

We continue this spiral into oblivion,

Year after year,

Decade after decade,

Century after century

As so many have done before us.

Perhaps one day we will learn

That constant war tires and diminishes a people

Until eventually they plunge into the abyss of history

–Under the weight of their own arrogance.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

With Tears I Say Goodbye

With tears I say goodbye

Though I do not know your pain,

Nor the pain of your ancestors

Inflicted at the hands of those that look like me.

When I look in the mirror

I am not proud,

I am not proud of our past,

Not proud of of our inhumanity,

Not proud of the picture our hands are painting.

With a broad brush,

We paint in your blood,

Red and warm as mine

Though left to dry cold in the streets.

We stand around,

As if awaiting applause,

While your spirit fades,

Showing just how little we care.

I know this is not me,

Though I know you can’t see it;

And that these words are just words

Unable to bring you back from the dead.

Your family grieves,

But their grief is overshadowed,

Trampled down under the weight of constant diversions

Portraying you as something less than human.

Yet none of this matters!

Injustice cannot hide forever

Behind an iron blue citadel

Mortared with lies, racism and hatred.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

AUTHORS NOTE: I was not going to write another piece about the tragedy in Ferguson Missouri today, but I find Michael Browns’s death so troubling that I couldn’t help myself.  His death in my eyes shows that racism still runs rampant in this country though many of us would prefer not to admit it.  For those that would like to pretend this never happened, I think it is time you opened your eyes.  Explain to me how being stopped for jaywalking could escalate to the point where a young man is shot six times and killed, then left alone in the street for so long.  This is completely beyond my comprehension.

O’ Blessed Silence How I Long For Thee (Sonnet)

O’ blessed silence, how I long for thee,

Surrounded by ignorance and fools.

Blind to reality by refusing to see,

They’re being used as propagandist tools.

 

Is not an informed citizenry a wonderful thing,

With fact-based opinions at their core.

Sadly lost to the masses, they grasp for a ring,

Tarnished from a time long before.

 

It seems compassion’s lost to the hearts of fellow-men,

Leaving them cold with the worst traits thought past.

Rigid and hateful and unwilling to bend,

Claiming piety with iron-fist holding fast.

 

The softening of hearts would surely serve us well while still questioning those that lead us.

A sacred obligation as our founders did tell with diplomacy and respect to discuss.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Scattered Amongst The Ashes

Scattered amongst the ashes

A solitary flame flickers

Shedding light on the bleakness of this world.

Perhaps the next child born will be the one to save us from ourselves.

Each first breath offering hope

That our nescience is not irreparable.

Deeming ourselves civilized

We erect gauntlets against what does not fit our world view.

Denying climate change,

Though it stares us in the eye,

Forcing spiritual beliefs

All the while claiming discrimination,

Sloughing off cries of racism

Because admission would make us something less than human.

I see no light amongst the living–

Only more of the same driven by greed and selfishness.

If we are to be rescued it will be by a new guard,

One untainted by our perverted values,

One born with the humanity, the selflessness, the courage

To eradicate the filth that pollutes this planet

With their bastardized vision of God

And their gluttonous appetite for money.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Patriotic (Acrostic)

Purveyors of hate

Attempt to intimidate those of unlike minds–

Turning to violence and angry rhetoric to force their points-of-view.

Reality eludes them as they long for their diluted utopia.

I do not despise my country nor my brothers,

Only those despots among us that desire to bastardize it in their image.

They and they alone are treasonous,

Ignorant and insidious,

Corrupting all that is good in the name of the flag.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Darkness Approaches

Darkness approaches

Yet we don’t see it coming.

We have been lied to,

Betrayed by our government.

Still…many among us cheer.

Maybe I’m confused

When those affected revel.

Blindly happy;

Ignoring their own demise

…One day soon the sky will fall.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Lick Your Open Wounds (Tanka)

Lick your open wounds

But expect no sympathy

For self-infliction

Brought on by your stone silence

You’ll suffer at your own hands

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Smoke Wafts O’er The Granite Mountainside

Smoke wafts o’er the granite mountainside;

Black and thick in a murderous haze.

Sulfur taints the crusty putrid air

Drowning out the glorious scent of honeysuckle and pine.

Babbling brooks once vocal no longer babble;

Their voices silenced by dam, drought and pollution.

Dry and cracked beds mar earths aging face

Leaving tinder for natures fiery furnace.

From my hilltop perch a murky brown sludge chokes the valley floor.

What hazards are these we should ask,

Though no one cares but for convenience and profit.

As we seek cause and cure for man’s maladies

Might we look no further than ourselves,

Our misuse of natures gifts,

Our burning of fossil fuels,

Pollution of our most precious resources–air and water,

Is it any wonder we are plagued with incurable disease?

Yet even the slightest attempts to change course

Are stalled by the profiteers gauntlet.

Science–when used for their benefit is gospel,

But dismissed as leftist propaganda

When the planet and climate are on stage.

Look beyond your four walls,

Breathe deeply,

Feel the burn in your tainted lungs,

Wipe the tears from your stinging eyes and look if you can,

Is this the vision of paradise that you sought

For you and your children?

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

I Never Really Knew Her

My breath floated silently toward Heaven.

I watched as it disappeared

Blending seamlessly with the cloud filled sky.

With upturned collar

I stood with loved ones feeling completely alone;

Such a strange feeling this is.

I had known her for almost fifty years,

But suddenly came to realize…

I scarcely knew her at all.

Self-absorbed with my life, my own family,

Thinking she would always be there

I never thought to ask who she was,

What her life was like,

Even where she born;

It just never occurred to me to ask

And never came up in conversation.

My picture of her had always been the same,

White hair, as white as newly fallen snow,

Her cheek, soft and smooth to the kiss,

Kind and joyful, yet quiet as a mouse;

Always taking a backseat to the love of her life.

Sadly, her time has now passed

Taking with it the story that was her.

I am left to gather up snippets,

Like those tossed on the cutting room floor

Selectively shared second hand.

My chance has passed to hear her story

In the truth that can only come from living it.

No fault can be placed, but on me

So on me alone the fault must lie.

By divine retribution, I stand here,

In the icy chill of winter to bid farewell

To one I loved dearly,

More dearly than she would ever know

And with profound sadness I’ve come to realize

…That I never really knew her at all.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Obsessed As A Culture

Obsessed as a culture,

Three hundred channels of voyeurism,

Crack to the masses for which there is no cure.

Our appetites are voracious,

The more they feed us

The more we swallow.

We are being dumbed down,

All in the name of entertainment.

Fifteen minutes of fame,

No talent required,

We buy into this formula.

Commonsense is on the decline,

We are no longer educationally superior,

Our kids instead strive to top the antics of “Jack Ass”

And long to live in the “Big Brother” house,

High aspirations indeed.

This is our future.

We welcome it with open arms

And our junk food appetites.

I guess we get what we deserve.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~