This Solitary Tree

This solitary tree,

Utterly alone amongst the brown grasses.

Nary a leaf can I see,

iIgnored by the traveling masses.

~

No birds find cause to seek shelter,

No buds rise to show you love.

Dry and brittle in the noonday swelter,

Limbs raised to Heaven hoping for rain from above.

~

What have you done to be shunned…an outcast,

Sentence too cruel for such an innocent one.

Punishment levied you’d hoped you’d outlast,

With each passing day a new days begun.

~

I look on with sorrow and the shedding of tears,

As I see myself in you, one and the same.

With scarcely a friend after all of these years,

I’ve no one to place, except me with the blame.

~

I too just as you have my soul laid out bare,

A wish for companionship to stay.

Broken and weak I expose to the air,

The longing for love I keep locked away.

~

~~ 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 ~~

A Mind In Torment – A Tanka

Image Credit: rooseveltcampusnetwork.com

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 ~~

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 ~~