Dust and cobwebs
Years passed
Forgotten to time
Unassuming vessel
Buried
Garments out of style
Mementos and trinkets
Sharing the tomb
Still life memories
Black, white,
Faded color
Youthful exuberance
Ancestors
Relegated to history
Resurrected
Celluloid
Smiles and hugs
Lasting impressions
Sense of pride
Who we are
Who we were
Who we will be
Simple attic
Dirty and dark
Meaningless to others
Family heirlooms
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Uncomfortable skin
Wrapping unknown destiny
Who am I to be
A question answered at death
By looking back at our life
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
We live,
Separate lives together.
Sharing a roof,
A bed.
Lying back to back.
Void of touch,
Good night
Whispered to an old friend,
Settling for the mundane.
Waking hours,
Life lived apart,
Turmoil of the day,
Work, stress, aggravation,
Too tired to talk.
Meals,
Separate ends of the couch,
Silence for company.
Clink of fork and knife,
White noise,
Breaking tense solitude.
Grown apart,
Here for convenience,
Home, cars, bills, children.
Chains,
Anchors to this hell,
Repetitive, repulsive, depressing,
Loneliness consumes,
Leaving no way out,
Stuck,
In separate lives…
Together.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
The Lord’s hand protects
Non-believers will perish
Like brush in a fire
Please tell me how you would know
What lives in the heart of God
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Hades screams its torrid winds,
Scorching earth of bone and skin.
Desolate ground of sun bleached sand,
Reminiscent of lunar land.
~
Scrub brush torn from shallow root,
Crushed to dust while under foot.
Watching step for danger lurks,
From thorn and fang and stingers work.
~
Blistering flesh under cloudless sky,
Waterless fools most surely die.
So this goes for man and beast,
It matters not be most or least.
~
Call of hawk and vulture above,
No place for cardinal, sparrow or dove.
Unforgiving this land it takes,
Seizing on each and every mistake.
~
Birds of prey circle and wait,
For nature to inflict a certain fate.
A hearty meal in barren land,
Relying on the feast at hand.
~
Wasteland though it seems to be,
There’s so much more than the eye can see.
It’s beauty lies not in pleasing flowers,
Nor in forests where great pine trees tower.
~
Instead it lies in stark contrast,
To seashores blue landscape so vast.
Inhospitable appearance its enduring charm,
In spite of all potential harm.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Life’s greatest rewards
Friendship, love, marriage, children
So easily lost
Succumbing to deadly sin
Destroys all that we treasure
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Image Credit: murphyillustration.com
Mother’s wild rage
Unmerciful destruction
Wind, fire and rain
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Self-esteem of youth
Broken by thoughtless discourse
Like carnival glass
Scattered in minuscule shards
Is laborious to mend
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
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 heart once hardened
Ferments in caustic hatred
Shutting out true love
Tragic is this festering
Leaving nothing but ashes
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 