Tag Archives: justice

Defeated And Detained

Defeated and detained;

His cries for mercy mercilessly ignored.

What warrant had they

To choke a life into lifelessness.

Was it out of hate and fear

Or is being black in America a crime.

We have not come so far as we’d like to believe,

Reliving the violence of Selma over and over again.

The wounds have been reopened,

Bleeding from what long ago scarred.

But there was no healing,

Just poison bubbling beneath the surface.

Erupting, toxins asphyxiating,

Pleas of “I can’t breathe”, echoed ‘til silent.

Guilt determined before innocence,

At the knee of those sworn to protect.

Judge, jury and executioner,

Hiding behind a badge.

Will there be any justice?

A question asked many times before,

Or will George Floyd be forgotten 

‘Til the next autopsy?

Community

Comradery of souls

Offered without pretense;

More could not be asked for

Making the cause all the more special.

Unity of purpose unites

Nailing hearts and minds to a common cross,

Instilling strength to carry on the fight.

Though hardship and hatred will try to stifle,

Yearning for understanding and equality can never be silenced.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

There Is No Relief

There is no relief
No solace in the system
When trust is broken
Right or wrong we all have lost
By virtue of this verdict
A public trial
Witnesses in open court
Would this have been wrong
Perhaps, but we’ll never know
Case closed…

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Erasure (Acrostic)

Erased–blood stains and voices

Roadway washed clean by rain

Anger and outrage quelled

Silenced by media’s waning interest

Under the ground in which he’s buried roots still grow

Racism–spreading like crabgrass

Eviscerating the people of justice.

 

~~ 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.

Anger–You Can See It On Their Grimaced Faces

Anger–you can see it on their grimaced faces;

Marching, hands raised in civil defiance.

Neither curfew nor militarization will quell them

In the face of injustice.

What passes for authority tries to divert,

Maybe he took the “sweets”, maybe he didn’t,

Maybe he smoked a little weed,

Maybe jaywalking is a capital crime in the south,

Maybe murder is ignored when hidden behind a badge.

So much for civil rights,

So much for equality under the law,

So much for compassion and common decency.

He was eighteen and unarmed,

Of this there is no dispute!

Perhaps he wasn’t an angel…are any of us?

I have bent the law,

Maybe even broken it a time or two,

But I’m still here, breathing, smiling, growing older.

We can deny–

That racism exists,

We can deny–

That blacks are treated differently than whites,

We can deny–

That skin color matters,

But denial doesn’t make it so!

Changing laws do not change hearts,

And time does not necessarily heal…

These are irrefutable facts.

Behind closed doors we disrobe,

Taking off our suit of political correctness,

To reveal naked hate.

We spew the epithets of our fathers,

Who broke the backs of an unwilling immigrant.

It’s as though times have never changed…

And perhaps they haven’t.

The manacles once of iron are now invisible,

The whips of braided leather no longer leave scars,

But the pain, fear and displacement still exists

…In this twenty-first century.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Corporate Muscles Flexed Once Again

Corporate muscles flexed once again,

Trampling the rights of the common man.

What fools believe that corporations are people?

Why does one person’s belief trump that of another?

Where is the judicial in all of this?

Are they not charged with protecting the people’s rights?

They have become political tyrants,

Partisan and putrid as the legislative and executive.

“We The People” has become a joke;

Something relegated to the past,

Something we look back fondly on that once existed,

But sadly exist no more.

Individuals have no power to enact change

Where money and business rule.

Silenced by the dollar, we are ignored.

Was this erected in our framework,

Was this what the founders intended,

That man should be subjugated by greed and profit?

We cry foul at those who infringe on human and civil rights,

Yet we are nothing but hypocrites,

Infringing on the rights of our own.

There is no fairness under the law,

There is no justice under the law,

Unless you can afford to buy it.

Raise the gavel…

We’ve sold out to the highest bidder!

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~