Tag Archives: poem

Childish Insecurity

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~~

Its a masquerade,

Decorated in random shades of color,

All to hide the true self from you.

~

I am ashamed of the real me,

For what reason I do not know,

Afraid I might be thought less of.

~

Oh the pure foolishness,

A game played solely in my mind,

Grounded in a child’s fantasy.

~

The excruciating pain of insecurity,

Every face a mirrored distortion of me,

Laughing, whispering, looking away.

~

They avert their eyes,

As if glimpsing some hideous monster,

There’s nowhere to hide.

~

What a horrible delusion,

I fabricate my own nightmares,

Without the comfort of slumber.

~

Travails have haunted me,

Ripping confidence asunder,

Though time after time I’ve overcome.

~

So ingrained is this sense of doubt,

It is woven into my being,

Like an old friend I could scarcely do without.

~

Still each new day is a struggle,

A torment to beat back,

Another chance for me to rise above myself.

Image: Standford University

The Minds Eye

By D. R. DiFrancesco

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder,

As does love when souls grow older,

Doth the mind play tricks on the aging eye,

Maybe so, it most surely try.

Portraying the look of younger days,

We overlook the changing grays,

Projecting on the freshness of youth,

Beliefs most surely are the truth.

With utmost certainty a gift this must be,

For lovely today as the first are thee,

Is this a trick or are we but blind,

Left to the mercy of a hopeful mind.

Doth this make us mere fools to our memory,

Would have it no other way if it let me,

Hiding away the ravages of time,

Leaving in life a love most sublime.

The Land of Disillusionment

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~

Faces of color,

Eyed through blinders of suspicion,

Had we not buried this decades back,

People minimized for political gain.

~~

Grasping for a solution,

The problem steeped in your imagination,

You’ve convinced yourself this is righteous,

Yet racism and bigotry fester in you.

~~

This is not sacrosanct,

Taking hold of the weakness of the innocent,

Illegitimizing their right to be represented,

All for an ideal that isn’t your own.

~~

The media claims to be fair and balanced,

While corrupting your mind,

Brainwashing you with their hatred and mistrust,

As you mindlessly tow their party line.

~~

You despise him as an archvillain,

Is it his race, what you perceive his religion to be,

Is it his name, his father, his mother,

All targets of your aggression.

~~

Your side spouts lies,

Making claims they know to be blatantly false,

Saying whatever you want to hear,

Sycophants following like lambs to slaughter.

~~

This is what they want from you,

Belief in a past that can’t be resuscitated,

The future won’t settle for the lesser,

Still you continue to drink from the tainted well.

~~

They view half of us as leeches,

Feeding off of the system for our own personal gain,

Who are they, the elderly, children, disabled,

Do not judge them unless you have walked in their shoes.

~~

A sad state of affairs,

Pitting brother against brother and sister against sister,

The weapon of words no less brutal,

Leaving victims on both sides bloody and disillusioned.

Image credit: theatlantic.com

Monarch’s Reign

Monarch Butterfly

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~

Mandarin,white, obsidian glory,

Exquisite majesty soaring,

Graceful feathery flutter,

Whisper silent utter.

~

Fairy tale grace inspired,

Marathon distance flier,

Born in natures swaddle,

Angelic infants toddle.

~

Innocent beauty undercover,

Lives to boast a princely lover,

Short lived romance symphony plays,

‘Til they part on dying days.

~

Crown jeweled natures elegance,

Wings rhythm heavenly trance,

King and Queen exalted royalty,

Nobility commands subjects loyalty.

~

Behold honors modest atonement,

Loveliness granted in its moment,

Rembrandt’s stroke to you would pale,

God’s paragon winged angel you sail.

Image: monarch-butterfly.info

Recapturing Innocence

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~

I found a place,

Deep inside me,

Warm and comforting,

Something I thought I’d lost.

~

So many years ago,

Innocence shielded me,

Harbored my emotions,

Enveloped me in the simplicity of youth.

~

Age changed,

I let my gentility drift off,

Replacing it with cynicism,

Spoiling the wonder of me.

~

The world didn’t change,

It is still just as wondrous,

Instead it was me that was corrupted,

My skepticism and pessimism changed my view.

~

Looking for the worst,

My fellow man could not be trusted,

Conniving and deceitful by nature,

I lost sight of the decent.

~

My perception flawed,

Skewed by life experience,

Taken as the standard bearer,

Distorting my future interactions.

~

Mistrust instills bitterness,

Fear of the worst is all consuming,

Depression and anxiety take root,

Trapping ugliness inside.

~

Tired of the sadness,

No longer recognizable,

It was not me in the mirror,

Rather a shell of who I was.

~

With eyes wide,

I looked deep,

Straining to find the innocent me,

Drawn to tears by the time I’d lost.

~

There is joy in letting go,

Finding good in what surrounds me,

Purging the cynic and skeptic,

Anchors that weighed me down.

~

I have found that place,

Pleasing to my body and soul,

Lost so many years ago,

To the ravages of maturity.

Image credit: citizenshift.org

Love Eternal

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~

Love, a sweet and fragile thing,

So often taken for granted,

Or tossed aside as insignificant.

~~

Only a heart blackened,

Burned and broken,

Could commit such a tragedy.

~~

Choosing to pass alone,

Lonely and cold,

Into the eternal night.

~~

Foolish choices,

Made by selfish men,

In the name of earthly gain.

~~

For what purpose,

Material possessions are finite,

Discarded on our last day.

~~

But is not love eternal,

Gifted freely from one to another,

Melding with our very souls.

~~

What a poor man is he,

Confined to his worldly goods,

While silence fills his rooms.

~~

Does not love will us to go on,

Strengthening our resolve,

Even in times of affliction.

~~

If this were this not the case,

I long ago would have ceased,

Suffocated by life’s despair.

~~

Choosing love instead is most natural,

Engraved into our very being,

‘Til death do us part.

Buffett’s Life – Haiku

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~

Cool ocean breezes

Pinã Colada in hand

Love in the tropics

~~

Coconut oil

Kettle drums and bongos play

This is the good life

~~

Warm sand between toes

Caribbean blue waters

Heaven here on earth

River’s Run

By D. R. DiFrancesco

The river wails in excitement as it reaches the precipice

Morphing into an effervescent shower of God’s tears

Crashing helplessly on the rocks below

The river never trembles

Never hesitates

Never endeavors to postpone it’s end

Instead it marches headlong into the unrevealed

On to a destiny known only to the maker

What a wonderous life it must lead

Concerned not with it’s fate

Content that it has traveled the determined path

Only to be reborn as a bountiful gift from Heaven

The Cruelest Loss

By D. R. DiFrancesco

Words can be kind but you prefered cruel

Thrown like a javelin

Piercing my still beating heart

What angry motives you display

Spewed like a child pouting and juvenile

But you are not a child

Those years are long past

Yet you refused to show restraint

Did I wound you

If so, I beg your pardon, for this was not my intention

Malice is not in my nature

You know this better than anyone

Can you ever forgive me my ignorance

For I know not where I erred

Clairvoyance has always eluded me

As does the cause of our rift

I’ve tried repeatedly to make amends

But my cries go unanswered

We have been confidants for a lifetime

Oh how it pains me that we cannot ford this divide

Yet my hope blossoms

That the hurt can be soothed

Reuniting us once more

Mind Games

Sorrowing Old Man – Vincent Van Gogh – 1890

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~

Drifting away,

Drowning in a sea of desperation,

Grasping for a life ring of sanity,

Just out of my reach.

~

I look within,

A swirling cyclonic mess embodies me,

Unrefined shapes and forms,

Seeking to undermine me at every turn.

~

This Impenetrable darkness,

That neither sun nor joy can imbue,

Why have I been cursed with this plague,

Delivering pain to the four winds of my soul.

~

Overwhelming sadness clutches me to her bosom,

Offering me nothing but anguish,

Have I not been tormented enough,

Stripped and laid bare to the elements.

~

God and science offer no comfort,

For the troubled mind worships it’s own demons,

I have prayed to exercise them,

Yet found the only panacea is time.

~

With night, slumber offers me respite,

Time for healing,

Calm for the erratic mind,

Hope for a clearer perspective at dawn.