Can you hear the cries
Echoing out in the night
Hunger their captor
Resigned to a third world
Right hear in our own backyard
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Tag Archives: ignorance
Prejudice – An Acrostic
Painful
Raping ones identity
Extracting their soul
Just to claim superiority
Unfathomable to the logical mind
Disgusting to those blind to difference
Inclusion makes us grand
Communion makes us stronger
Ending prejudice
.
~~ 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 ~~
Promises Break
Promises break like straw under foot,
Brittle, bending, crumbling under slightest weight,
No longer bound to man’s word.
Instead they are simply words of convenience,
Placating the concerned,
Enveloping those amongst the unconvinced.
Like sheep are these believers,
Led about by their staff laden necks,
Given sustenance just to hush their words.
No longer is honor a cornerstone,
A pillar of trust, as valued as a kings ransom,
Degraded, they are nothing but syllables, hollow and meaningless.
Yes, they may be voiced with a smile,
A handshake if the orator is so moved,
Yet sadly these have become standard props for their theatrics.
When did this happen,
When did the worth of a man become worthless,
When did men cower to pretense?
Maybe always, maybe of recent past, maybe today,
Knowing they are played like the strings of a mandolin,
But unable to reconcile their buffoonery.
One day the blinders may be lifted from impaired eyes,
Revealing the wolf cloaked in statesmen’s fashion,
Only then might shame resurrect us.
~
~~ 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 ~~
Hatred and Violence
I sleep confident I’ve done my best,
Only to wake uncertain.
Insecure in myself,
Insecure in the craziness of this world,
The later feeds ravenously on the other;
Draining optimism as if water from a pond,
Leaving it dry, cracked — until it turns to dust.
Periodic lulls slowly renew my faith in man,
Spirits rise, the pond of optimism refills
Then in one spectacular moment it is gone,
Evaporating into the heavens,
By one stroke of ignorance or violence.
The reasons mystify;
Inexplicable to all but the perpetrators.
What’s to be gained?
Frivolous violence and hatred achieve nothing,
But to instill fear and hate in others otherwise uninclined.
This is not an accomplishment!
It is the perpetuation of discontent.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
A Mind In Torment – A Tanka
Image Credit: rooseveltcampusnetwork.com
A mind in torment
Severed from reality
Ignored as damaged
An illness to be treated
Not labeled as defective
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Turning a Blind Eye – A Tanka
Image Credit: productiveflourishing.com
Turning a blind eye
Gives momentary relief
But changes nothing
Only actions gets results
Poverty kills if ignored
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
With Wisdom Comes Ignorance – A Tanka
I’ve looked within me
Trying to understand life
Yet still it eludes
Wisdom has not come with age
I know less each passing day
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Unwelcome To Our Shores
Burqa, Dashiki, headscarf, turban,
Clothing nor traditions should fear instill.
Forgetting we are children of the melting pot,
Sprawling roots of Sicily, Belfast, Juarez, Berlin,
Many smaller port-of-call,
Spat on by bigots,
Held in contempt.
Amnesia plagued memory lost their father’s land,
Nothing has been learned o’er these many years,
Only the quarry has changed,
The slurs, the stares, the vindictive wit,
Disparate but analogous,
Yet none-the-less degrading.
Unwelcoming the huddled masses with open arms,
Seeing terror in every foreign face,
Like fools believing the rhetoric,
Stereotyping and profiling,
Demonizing difference.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 