Tag Archives: Michael Brown

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 ~~

Perhaps Armageddon Has Finally Come

Perhaps armageddon has finally come

Ferguson knows this all too well.

Do not be fooled–justice hasn’t been done

Though the politicians try to hard sell.

 

Claiming that the process has properly worked

Cries the President down to the prosecution.

Their responsibilities so blatantly shirked

It’s sad to think that this is the solution.

 

Corporate media you are largely to blame,

Yes you, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News!

Refusing to hang your guilty heads in shame

You planted the bomb then lit the fuse.

 

In the end you got just what you wanted,

That sound bite and graphic video clip.

Those agitators you shamelessly taunted

Full team coverage that never has slipped.

 

Still in the end a young man lies dead,

His parents still mourning their loss.

Long after you turn your cameras and fled

Forgetting your actions have costs.

 

And you men of justice with the law on your side

You’ve failed at the tasks we entrust.

Behind the grand jury with deception you hide,

Your verdicts in our faces you thrust.

 

So tell me what’s fair in this game that you play

Using the media to determine outcome.

It’s wrong and you know it no matter what you may say

While at our heads you are holding a gun.

 

You get what you give in this violent game

Though I wish that it wasn’t to be so.

So pin to your chests that badge of true blame

Donning makeup for the cameras next show.

 

~~ 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 ~~

 

Lest We Forget Him

Lest we forget him

Michael Brown finally rests

But the fight goes on

His family still in mourning

Must live a life without him

This is a disgrace

As a nation we should weep

Drowning in our tears

Not for Ferguson alone

But for ourselves and country

 

~~ 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 ~~

 

Death Of Our Future

Death of our future;

Skin color–judge and jury

In prejudice hands.

O’ the man he might have been,

Greatness he might have attained!

We will never know

As the blood pool will attest.

Our youth sacrificed

For their outward appearance

Instead of what’s in the heart.

This is pure hatred,

Revealing the blackened soul

Of years long gone by.

We thought we were above this

In one nation under God.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~