There’s no place like home
Family huddled around
Sharing Christmas cheer
Unless home is on the street
And your cheer is someones trash
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
A little reminder to be generous to those in need at this time and all times of the year, if for no other reason than it is the right thing to do.
In this gilded age
What is old is new again.
Worship of the golden calf
Has supplanted our rights.
Blood shed over these many years
Washed away with the bleach of power.
Fault lies squarely with us,
We allow their deceptions to dissuade.
Staying home we complain
Or cast vote against our own interest.
Each time we give them greater power
Plunging ourselves ever deeper into their pit.
How long will it be before it is too late,
When our eyes are so shielded as to be blind.
You think they are not displaying hateful smiles;
Proud of their accomplishments…
Give yourselves a pat on the back.
You believe that they care about you;
Their coffers are their only love.
Spending to kill their opposition…
This is their way and you are but pawns.
Their complicit media does nothing to inform,
Deceiving and perpetuating their propaganda.
With a populace too lazy to seek the truth,
They are easily swooned by soundbites.
Repeat them often enough and people believe,
How sad this truly is.
We base decisions on 140 characters…or less,
We take statements as fact from anonymous sources.
As a people, we claim to appreciate due diligence,
But not when it comes to those that govern us.
Quick to believe rumors, mass emails and tweets,
We call ourselves informed.
What is it Jefferson said about an enlightened citizenry?
“…it is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.”
Many of us have proved to be a disappointment…
Social media is not enough, soundbites are not enough;
Ignorance is not an excuse!
You shout your patriotism as if it’s fact
While wrapping yourself in the American flag.
Meanwhile you seek to distance yourself from the poor,
Treating them all as abusers of our system, a drain on society,
Unworthy of saving….better left for dead.
Our health and security you put on the chopping block
Or sell off for the profit of privateers.
You desire to corporatize the education of our young
For so long a public mainstay,
Now raped and pillaged then labeled dysfunctional.
You should be ashamed!
Every institution we hold dear is up for sale.
One day as you enter your sunset years
You will look back, perhaps longingly
And wish for those things that you slaughtered
Out of pure ignorance and deadliest of sins
–Greed.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Drawing your broadsword,
The shrill sound of blade on scabbard
Sends the wind whistling as you ready for the plunge.
From your gilded perch you call a throne,
You drive your saber home!
Stripping away every last breath,
Leaving those that built your dominion
Clutching their throats and gasping for air,
All to adorn your coffers
With the gold of fools.
Corpses of the loyal lie scattered about
Left to rot in the noonday sun.
You know more will come
Looking to you for mercy and sustenance,
Knowing they too are expendable.
Your minstrels praise you calling you benevolent Lord
While you smile your hollow smile.
With yellowed teeth and putrid breath
You shower them with accolades,
All the while condemning them to death.
You find this such great sport,
A vicious game,
Played solely for your amusement.
Who loses makes no matter
So long as its you that prospers.
You look down upon your subjects
With jeweled goblet in hand,
Whispering in contempt
That they are not worthy of your grace
Nor deserving of your clemency.
So you carry on like a spoiled Prince
Conniving those around you,
“Fear not!”, you proclaim–this is all in jest,
While the executioner readies his block
For the next ax to fall.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Authors Note: I wrote this piece back in November of 2012 and as I expected, nothing has changed, in fact in many ways it has gotten drastically worse for so many people. Sadly, I can’t really say I am surprised.
Is it hope or foolishness,
Games of chance,
One more turn of the card,
The next pull of the one armed bandit
Hit me,
Come on–triple sevens,
Changing life forever.
More often than not
The wallet ends lighter,
The heart weeps louder,
The mind is more full of regret,
Maybe next time…
Jackpot!
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Pain…like no other
Living–wrong side of the tracks.
Dirty and hungry;
Sunken eyes reveal sadness
Under shroud of filthy streets.
Urchins you call them,
Throwaways to be ignored,
Wastes of human flesh.
Where is your humanity?
They’re people like you and me
Children of this world
Worthy of our sympathy
Worthy of our love
You best take heed!
For one day it may be you
That is spit upon.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Blood and tears by the day we weep
At the hands of a master with whip in hand.
Giving just enough so his slaves may eat
While keeping them cast in this purgatory land.
From towers of ivory they cackle at our fear
That their purse strings of velvet they may cinch.
Leaving us victim to the profits held so dear
Unwilling to contort even an inch.
O’ the horrors of the indentured organizing for their rights
How terrible and unpatriotic they must be.
To want a fair wage and sleep peacefully at night
Instead of worrying that their jobs just might flee.
Capitalists claim it’s the best of both worlds
That the profits trickle down to the masses.
With a grin on their faces lies they do hurl
Condemning the poor and middle classes.
Those that buy in are the ones they most harm
Afraid to speak out for what is fair.
Choosing to smile and nod with a charm
That sloughs it all off with no care.
They lie to themselves that all’s as it should be
No better system exists on this earth.
While the master ships our jobs away overseas
This shows how little we are worth.
Who is unpatriotic where their loyalty is concerned
The capitalist driven by power and greed.
Or is it the captive dying for all he has earned
Just to live and his family to feed.
In nearly two and half centuries very little has changed
Money and class are still rules of the day.
This is how unjustly our system is arranged
The affluent would have it no other way.
So pull close your wife, husband, daughter and son
For the ride may get bumpier as we go.
Unless we fight back then the master–he has won
Then ever less is all we’ll have to show.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Blink and it is gone.
All that you took for granted–
Evaporated,
Because of insatiable greed
And deep-rooted selfishness.
Looking down from high
Upon those less fortunate
With smirks and disdain–
You should truly be ashamed!
Each dirty face could be yours
In a single blink.
It is that simple.
In this life or the next
There will be judgement.
Do you want to take the chance
That you’ll be the lesser soul?
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Scattered amongst the ashes
A solitary flame flickers
Shedding light on the bleakness of this world.
Perhaps the next child born will be the one to save us from ourselves.
Each first breath offering hope
That our nescience is not irreparable.
Deeming ourselves civilized
We erect gauntlets against what does not fit our world view.
Denying climate change,
Though it stares us in the eye,
Forcing spiritual beliefs
All the while claiming discrimination,
Sloughing off cries of racism
Because admission would make us something less than human.
I see no light amongst the living–
Only more of the same driven by greed and selfishness.
If we are to be rescued it will be by a new guard,
One untainted by our perverted values,
One born with the humanity, the selflessness, the courage
To eradicate the filth that pollutes this planet
With their bastardized vision of God
And their gluttonous appetite for money.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
More cold than the season could possibly express,
Hangs in the air and the hearts of man.
We speak not of atrocities, we’d rather repress
Waged against others by their brother’s hand.
.
Considering ourselves a civilized sort,
Still in prejudice and intolerance we stand.
Giving no venue for them to retort
In what with affection we call the promised land.
.
This promise so cruel–seems held for the few
While the rest us are left to our own devices
The whip of the wealthy cracks to tame the shrews
While living high amongst their golden vices
.
Inequalities based on race, creed and color exist no matter how we wish them to fade,
Persisting throughout the years, not because we are right, but instead because we are afraid.
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Bread, milk, stocked pantry
Protection from arctic cold
Taken for granted
No comfort to the homeless
Freezing and dying alone
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 