Tag Archives: police brutality

Defeated And Detained

Defeated and detained;

His cries for mercy mercilessly ignored.

What warrant had they

To choke a life into lifelessness.

Was it out of hate and fear

Or is being black in America a crime.

We have not come so far as we’d like to believe,

Reliving the violence of Selma over and over again.

The wounds have been reopened,

Bleeding from what long ago scarred.

But there was no healing,

Just poison bubbling beneath the surface.

Erupting, toxins asphyxiating,

Pleas of “I can’t breathe”, echoed ‘til silent.

Guilt determined before innocence,

At the knee of those sworn to protect.

Judge, jury and executioner,

Hiding behind a badge.

Will there be any justice?

A question asked many times before,

Or will George Floyd be forgotten 

‘Til the next autopsy?

Black Smoke Wafts Skyward

Black smoke wafts skyward

Baltimore the latest nail

To be pounded home

How many more before the

Coffin is sealed and buried

Repeated killing

Just a different city

Will we never learn

These–our brothers and sisters

Share the same constitution

But not the same rights

They are treated as lesser

By their skin color

Disgusting as it may be

This is our America

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~


Faded Asphalt Riddled with Glass and Stone

Embed from Getty Images

 

Faded asphalt riddled with glass and stone

Scorched deep black by disenfranchised frustration.

Called thugs and lawless, anger bubbles over,

But still nothing has changed.

The sixties are alive in well in the twenty-first century.

Civil rights are still just a dream for many

Though we’d like to believe otherwise.

So what! Segregation has been legally abolished,

The back of the bus is no longer reserved,

But what the law cannot abolish is racism.

It cannot regulate the prejudice minds of man,

It cannot extract it from our senses,

Perhaps blindness is the answer,

Plucking of the eyes from the skull.

What else can save this species,

It has been on this spiral for eternity?

Look at our history!

Enslavement, segregation, discrimination,

Poverty, lynchings, so little progress.

Yes, some of these have faded,

Replaced by polite prejudice,

But still nothing has changed.

Perhaps one day,

The ignorant will close their eyes,

Open their hearts

And realize that color is only

…Skin deep.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Anger Spilling O’er

Anger spilling o’er,

Flashes of violence burn

Though not sure it helps.

Those in authority point

Proclaiming, “See they are thugs!”

It’s not that simple!

Centuries of abuse live,

Their pain is not quelled,

Wounds scarred are ripped wide open,

Dried blood turns and flows freely.

We have learned nothing.

Seemingly daily there’s death

Because of color.

Where’s accountability?

It’s hidden behind a wall

…and that wall is blue.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Injustice (Acrostic)

Insanity rules in our narrow world

No one is safe, especially men of color

Justice is clearly for the chosen

Undermining all that we hold sacred

Slaughter at the hands of those charged to protect

Time and again goes unpunished

Ideologues believe us civilized

Constantly calling for calm

Entrusting their fates to this broken system

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

To Protect And Server

To protect and serve

Whole communities in fear

Race should not matter

But it does and always has

More so in this day and age

Policing has changed

More vicious, less tolerant

They’re militarized

Controlling people by fear

Instead of using respect

When did this happen

Jackboots on the peoples necks

Tanks in city streets

Science fiction is now real

Welcome to the brave new world

 

~~ 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 ~~