Bitterest of pills
I swallowed without consent
And now I’m choking.
With every day that passes
I pray for civility
Only to suffer
The pains of disappointment.
Will I ever learn…
I doubt that I ever will,
But there’s no harm in hoping.
Trying to temper
My passion for politics,
Where lies don’t matter,
Compassion signals weakness
And right and left never meet.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
A living wage…
Is it too much to ask?
The unions fought for you,
Many died for you
Yet now you treat them as evil.
Who does this benefit?
Look at your stagnant wage,
Feel the fear of losing your job.
Each closed door meeting brings anxiety.
There is no loyalty from above,
Dollars and cents are their gods now.
You have been weakened and betrayed,
But you don’t see it…this is capitalism.
The promised trickle has all but dried up,
Living paycheck-to-paycheck your way of life.
Whatever happened to the middle class,
The comfortable life, retirement,
It is all just a dream relegated to history,
While the upper crust bathes in their gold.
Still you cast your ballot for your own demise.
Lower taxes will not bring you comfort,
Later retirement will not bring you joy,
Minimum wage will not support you,
Healthcare vouchers will not sustain you,
Social Security will not carry you to the end.
So what is it you want?
We are being ravaged at every turn,
Still you are too blind to see it.
Watch these buffoons on stage,
Telling you they care about you…the little man?
These millionaires and billionaires don’t care about you!
They only care for themselves
And their wealthy friends that bought them.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Pointing out problems
Does not a solution make,
Trump is no genius!
Those of his ilk made this mess
Now you think he can fix it.
The boy who cried wolf
That is all he really is
…You’ve fallen for it.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Independence Day,
Celebration of freedom,
It’s slipping away
With America’s blessing.
Let’s keep our heads in the sand.
We’ve handed it off
To corporations and shills
With a boldface smile.
We have no one else to blame
But the face in the mirror.
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Things of dreams, of hopes,
This life I live and all that I have,
The promise of America, a ghost long dead.
Stripped of humanity, stripped of dignity, I see the pain in her eyes;
Mine tear for her, for the psychopath she has become,
She hates her children, punishing them for their ignorance.
But who is to blame, we’ve offered our souls to the Devil with each election,
Perpetuating our own destruction, more of the same does not breed change.
Perhaps I am guilty as any choosing to write as my protest.
Is my hope to inspire sufficient?
Only time will tell.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Another season approaches fast,
Not spring nor summer nor winter nor fall.
Storming in even quicker than the last,
Loud and obnoxious like the clarion call.
Choices are growing, with more each day,
Though one seems no better than the other.
Either red or blue what more can I say,
Neither would surely be my druther.
They care not the least for the common man,
It’s all about the silver and gold.
While we struggle on the best that we can,
They tell us what we want to be told.
This same cast of characters appears every four years,
Dressed in their Brooks Brothers suits.
Except we’ve added Hillary, a bold new frontier,
Taking her share of the loot.
Politics is messy and boring at times,
But there’s so much at stake for us all.
I know that it’s early to sound warning chimes,
Though it’s better too soon than to stall.
It’s not just the President, but local too,
It starts from the ground to the top.
Throwing up your hands saying what can I do,
That’s just how they hope you will stop.
There’s power in numbers if we all stand as one,
Big money can be beaten by the masses.
Let’s put them in their places before they’ve begun,
Stepping out from behind rose colored glasses.
This is our country no matter what they believe,
These thieves and liars and cheats.
Let us not have one more election to grieve,
By taking our demands to the streets.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Serve at our pleasure
This, the politicians role
Most have forgotten
Hypnotized by gold’s allure
They bow before oligarchs
Doing their bidding
As if we do not matter
We can prove them wrong
Because voting is power
And their lives are in our hands
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Blindly following
Taking their words as gospel
Some would call it faith
A recipe for failure
When it comes to politics
Is it not our job
To be informed and question
Weeding out their lies
If it’s not then we are doomed
Like so many empires past
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Sullied by liars
Sleight-of-hand and trickery
Their fickle trademark
Yet we embrace with naivety
–Split-tongued devils among us
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
What little I have,
What little hope I hold out,
I hold out for you my brothers and sisters,
As this ponderous ship lumbers on.
Burdened with the heavy load of it’s own pomposity,
It lists port and starboard under it’s shifting cargo,
Tacking to-and-fro to navigate to calmer waters.
Captain and crew befuddled by the turbulent course,
Confused, cries of “Mutiny!” wring out from the deck,
Their cries fall on deaf ears.
On course for the eye of the storm,
The captain, in his pigheadedness refuses to yield,
Refuses to see the oncoming torrent,
Refuses to change course,
If not for him, but the sake of his crew.
Equally obstinate,
The crew abandons ship with nary a word,
Cowardly defecting to save face,
Leaving captain and cargo,
Feral and adrift to meet their fate.
For a ship untended…
Seldom reaches the safety of port
~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 