Tag Archives: music

I Listened

I listened, held my breath,

In between the whir of passing cars

I could here the sound of sparrows.

How strange this seemed,

As if I had never heard their song before.

Perhaps my ear has become more finely tuned,

Nay–very unlikely I suppose.

No, it is more likely that I shut up my mind,

Its incessant ramblings over things of little importance

Worries of work, family, responsibilities,

All imposed by me and this cursed ego.

For a brief moment there was blessed silence.

It leaves me thinking,

Had I only stopped sooner

The sparrows angelic song might have never left my ears.

 

~~Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Moulin Rouge

Ladies and Gent at the finest affair,

Linked arm-in-arm with noses in the air.

Paying no mind to the commoner on the street,

Entering the great hall they prepare for a treat.

A show for the ages with music and dance,

They surely wouldn’t miss it given the chance.

Seductive young ladies kicking legs in the air,

Dancing the can-can with nary a care.

The Gents take to whistling, they hoot and they holler,

While the ladies most appalled grab their men by the collars.

Such a circus is this with no animals or tent,

They must on this Sunday go to church and repent.

For now though they’re free to do as they please,

Revelling in the lust of the show as they tease.

Enjoying their sins amongst cigar smoke and booze,

Welcome Ladies and Gents to the Moulin Rouge.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Prompt: Jeremy’s Daily Challenge – Picture This Monday 15 September

At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

What Lies On Distant Shores

What lies on distant shores,

Buckets, pigeon holes, troughs for segregation.

Language, dress, birthplace do not an enemy make.

Where came this bitter misdirection?

Religion, culture, song, dance,

These are things of man’s creation.

Strip naked man and woman–

Lay them bare of their mortal inventions.

Confiscate their language, dress, birthplace,

Expropriate their religion, culture, song, dance,

Take all they have of this world;

What have they left?

Blood and skin and bone;

That which crumbles with inevitable death.

Hopes and dreams, emotions;

intangibles that define humanness.

Air, food, water, shelter;

That which sustains us.

Boundaries of man hold no sway over these.

We are but one species,

Born and consumed in life,

Until the day we return home

To the dust from whence we came.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Heart Of New York

Car horns, sirens, shouts

Muffled by flimsy windows

Third floor apartment

Crowds rushing uptown downtown

Skyscrapers and tenements

Highlight the landscape

Architecture old and new

Music and culture

Time Square, Central Park, New York

The greatest city on earth

~

~~ Dominic DiFrancesco ~~

Passing Time

With each and every passing year,

I realize I know less than I knew before.

The truths I held at once so dear,

Have up and left and run for the door.

~~

Things they change seeming obscure,

Not so plain as they used to be.

So much I see I at once abhor,

Closing my eyes in hopes I won’t see.

~~

Music and film I have lived to watch change,

Profane and obscene for what reason unknown.

I would go back in time if time be rearranged,

Oh how I wish that time would not have flown.

~~

Maybe this is a sign of age on the march,

Passed from progenitor to progeny alas.

Opinions unheeded as they drift beneath the arch,

Change will not stop as I peer through the glass.

~~

My guess is that I’ll either learn to live or ignore,

As my parents and their parent have done.

The cycle won’t change of this I am sure,

I suppose time and youth, they have won.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~