Tag Archives: old

I Pray For Restraint

I pray for restraint.

I pray that pride will not turn us blind,

This can only result in death.

Drawing all sides to the brink

On what road will there be peace?

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Yes, perhaps lines have been crossed,

But lines can be distorted by wind,

Blurred by anger, smothered with oil,

Causing harried decisions…

This is the time for wisdom not greed.

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Let not egotism ignite Armageddon,

The stakes are far too great.

Have we learned nothing from our past,

Nothing from our present,

Nothing from the farewells to our sons and daughters?

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Tell us almighty, what is victory!

Show us what victory looks like,

We have not seen one in so long!

You ask again for our trust

Yet your truths ring as hollow as ever.

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Calls Go Unanswered – A Tanka

Image Credit: telegraph.co.uk

Image Credit: telegraph.co.uk

Calls go unanswered

Are you not at all concerned

Like ships lost at sea

When late to arrive at port

We send out a search party

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Road Home

Stove burners blue flame

Dangerous heat

Warming frigid trembling hands

Radiator cold

Rent control all he can afford

Children absent and estranged

He’s invisible in this world

Old friends to the old man gone

Passed before his time

Rotary telephone shows its age

Symbiotically keeping pace

Silent and out-of-date

Thoughts of youth flutter

Flashbacks in his fragmenting mind

Remembrances of companions

Lost loves

And a wife

Still 20 to him,

After a lonely decade adrift

Living because he won’t die

He longs to sleep forever

But it is not God’s will

Not his time

Shuffling to the stove

He warms his trembling hands

To wait for meals-on-wheels

Or the Lord to take him home

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Greener Grass

This gravel road,

A path oft traveled,

Lane you strode,

As your life unraveled.

~~

Yon horizon so far distant,

Where a better life must lay,

Hurry on forth right this instant,

For the sun will rise on a brighter day.

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On yonder side the grass must surely be greener,

As the old time saying goes,

This too passes as ones life becomes leaner,

With far too little to show.

~~

Much too often we chase exaggerated expectations,

When they seem right within our grasp,

‘Til euphoria fades to urgent consternation,

And your prospects they dwindle and lapse.

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Life lessons learned are the hardest its true,

As the scars and bruises do prove,

Out of the rubble and ash will rise a new you,

In spirit and nature behoove.

~~

We greet you back home as a most beloved son,

For you needed to find your own way,

This is only the beginning of the journey you’ve begun,

Welcome home for as long as you will stay.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Old Man in the Mirror – (A Poem)

Time humbles the man,

Back arching under the weight of a lifetime,

Old photographs,

A reminder of good friends and loves that long ago passed.

 

The mind drifts,

Not as sharp or quick witted as it once was,

Long gone memories much fresher than today,

Then again, yesterday fits me much better.

 

Hair gone white,

Deep creases travel like dry river beds across my face,

Skin soft and sagging,

Looking in the mirror I can scarcely recognize myself.

 

Who is that old man staring back at me?

Drawn and tired,

Teeth yellowed, eyelids hanging like cheap suits,

I know it’s me inside this costume.

 

The crumbling exterior,

A vessel for a lifetime of wisdom and experience.

Earned through pain, suffering, love, and joy,

A gift wasted on the young.

 

None of this would I trade for the impetuousness of youth,

Born of  blood sweat, and tears,

Etched in my face as a reminder,

A badge to be worn with honor.