Tag Archives: living

With The Coming Of Summer

With the coming of summer

The years midlife begins in earnest.

Infancy is replaced by the maturity of time,

The dead forgotten to the wake of new life,

No more is there the barrenness of winter.

Cold, gray nakedness gives way to colors multitude,

Death’s pungent odor yields to the fragrance of flora,

Rebirth is complete…for a time.

Youthful fauna take comfort in nature’s bounty

Feeding in gluttonous fervor,

Instinctively knowing it is but momentary,

With the scarcity of later year fast approaching.

What a wondrous gift is nature;

Our lives mimicking her cyclic clock,

Stages of life revealed since time began.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Sentimentality And Longing

Sentimentality and longing–drowning

In a sea of what was.

Knowing that one can never go back

To childhood,

To before grandma died,

Before the loss of grandpa,

Before any of the idiotic decisions we make

During the folly of our youth and beyond.

The impossibility of this is obvious;

Time only marches forward,

Steady and resolute in its determination.

Leaving us, if we choose to stay,

in the dust and cobwebs of our past.

One must ask, “To what end?”

To be passed…

By opportunities for love,

The love of family,

All the good that life has to offer.

A life of misery,

A life of hoping for what was,

What can never be,

This is the fate of so many.

Living in sorrow, void of hope,

Void of happiness,

Drowning–in sentimentality and longing.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Waiting – A Tanka

I grow old waiting

Knowing you will never come

Wasting my short time

Logic tells me to move on

But hope keeps me locked in place

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Chameleon – A Haiku

Image Credit: cities.org

Image Credit: cities.org

The chameleon

Changes with it’s surrounding

So also must we

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Unexpected

The unexpected

Colors the dull hues of life

Like the painters brush

Morphing the starkest canvas

Into a virile art work

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Uncomfortable Skin – A Tanka

Uncomfortable skin

Wrapping unknown destiny

Who am I to be

A question answered at death

By looking back at our life

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Self-esteem – A Tanka

Self-esteem of youth

Broken by thoughtless discourse

Like carnival glass

Scattered in minuscule shards

Is laborious to mend

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Outside

Outside–

You see a face,

Weathered, showing the wear of time,

Wrinkles carved like dry rivers

Affixing character to a once youthful landscape.

~

Soft skin hands, wipe the sweat from the brow,

Long since retired from hard work,

Thin and gnarled,

They are more bone than flesh,

Still their past loveliness remains.

~

Hunched, from the years

And back breaking work

It’s a struggle just to stand up,

Yet there is nary a complaint uttered

Thankful just to have lived.

~

“Come with me”, said in whispered tone,

Taking a frail trembling arm in compliance,

Photographs yellowed, faded show glorious youth,

Beauty, fifty years past gleams brightly in your eyes

Though the blue is less brilliant.

~

“This was me”, as if unrecognizable

Pointing with an arthritic finger

Leading to story upon story.

“You see a face…”, spoken with a smile,

“But I am so much more…”

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

A Full Life

I’ve lived longer than many

And not as long as some.

With each days pass I am thankful,

Thankful for living a full life,

Whether it be one day or one hundred years.

Every life is full,

Perhaps not to those left behind,

But it was to they that lived it.

It was theirs and no others;

Their birth, life and death,

They knew no different .

This was the gift, the time they were given .

Will I have a tomorrow?

I know not the answer,

I do know that what will be will be,

Of that I am certain

And no amount of angst will alter it.

I cannot think of tomorrow

For it may never come.

What I have is here! Is now!

This is the entirety of life

Until the next moment arrives, God willing

And I’m given a little more time to live…

This full life.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Trapped

Trapped in this chasm, my mind

Constantly looking…

Searching for something only I can provide

Realizing, but still denying the power

Peering into the eyes of friends and strangers

Seeking approval…

Begging for their projection of happiness

Only to be disappointed

Let down by their inability to meet my desires

My need for acceptance,

My need for love,

My need for joy that once staked claim to my soul

But has since blow away

Sailing to parts unknown

As I lay quiet staring at the stark white ceiling

Tears, salty and warm sting my bloodshot eyes

Crying as I’ve done so many nights before

Tomorrows another day

Maybe I’ll find what I am looking for on the other side of the door

Waiting to embrace me

Envelope me

Wash me in the happiness that I so desperately pray for

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~