Tag Archives: poverty

Thirst and Hunger

Thirst is not a disease

Nor hunger a plague waged as a personal attack..

The dirty and downtrodden are not animals with opposing thumbs

Foraging through trash bins for food.

Their children are not parasites to be frowned upon!

They love just as you do with the same wants and needs.

Hands cracked and calloused know hard work.

Many toil hard and long for the barest of necessities

Only to fall short, thankful for assistance.

Yet you despise the poor collectively,

Lazy, blood suckers, bums, leeches,

Used as terms of endearment.

Speaking as though you know them or their circumstance

You display nothing but ignorance.

What do you know of their lives, their pain, their poverty?

Many are victims of economics,

Failing of health or disability,

Casualties of familial history,

Deprived of education,

Forgotten or blamed by the very souls with the power to change.

Greed and loathing blind,

Banishing compassion and humanity to the pits of hell.

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Blinded

Blinded by incessant greed,

You care not how it is acquired.

Crushing the lowly ant beneath designer wingtips

Screams for mercy go unheeded muffled in their death.

Prodded from birth a loss shall not be suffered,

Now so ingrained is it that you know no other way.

Color green, dreams of dollars, pounds, yen, your consummate brides,

You see nothing else, you see no inequity, no poverty.

Devoured by loathing, oblivious to anything but self

You despise those you view as vagrants, leeches, sycophants,

Treating them as rubbish though you know not their stories.

No time do you have for the common good,

Nor anyone or anything but your deepest desire.

Leaving all else to ride the wave of your deadly hate

While you strive to romance your lover…greed.

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Inspirational Quote: From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate – Socrates

Jem Farmer the Boi Poet – Poetry Prompt  – Three on Friday – 23 August 2013

 

Can You Hear The Cries – A Tanka

Can you hear the cries

Echoing out in the night

Hunger their captor

Resigned to a third world

Right hear in our own backyard

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Peeling Back The Layers

Peeling back the layers

Like an onion of marble, brick, wood,

Concrete, steel and plaster.

What lies beneath this man-made skeleton?

Flesh, blood, bone,

Hopes, dreams, promise,

Failure, disappointment, longing,

Pain, suffering and sorrow,

Wrapped in the package human.

Wealth nor status makes one immune.

Life infects rich and poor alike,

Birth and death spare no one,

Entering into their pact with nothing

And fulfilling the contract with no reward.

These truths are guaranteed

Despite a desire to bury them in denial, religion or alcohol.

Make what you will of your life

Ignore those that cry to you with outstretched hands,

Divert your eyes from malnourishment,

Turn your back on humanities fallen,

Do this and more without conscience

As a soulless miscreant is bound to do.

This is your choice.

Or join this race we all run…offering,

Time, money, love,

Compassion, sympathy, understanding,

A helping hand, encouragement,

As much or as little as you have,

This is what it means to be human,

To be in communion,

Asking nothing in return.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Enough – A Tanka

Somber do I feel

Weeping for the worlds pains

As if mine alone

In our culture of excess

Is there not enough for all

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Feast Of Gluttony

Feast of Gluttony

One of seven deadly sins

Frequent in the west

Hoarding all we can acquire

While looking down on the poor

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~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Humbled By A Stranger

Talk of family

Words did not come easily

But I understood

Though our languages differ

We spoke as if long lost friends

You Colombian

Plagued by crime and poverty

Low pay your reward

Yet still you love your country

Love it with all of your heart

Me American

My badge of entitlement

Worn outward with shame

Embarrassed by my complaints

You my friend have humbled me

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Humanity – A Tanka

Image Credit: flickr.com

Image Credit: flickr.com

Material wealth

Blinding to what surrounds you

Swallows compassion

If permitted to consume

And supplant humanity

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Opportunity

Opportunity

Who are the fortunate ones

Who will be left out

No question more pertinent

In this most troubled of times

Was this the promise

Is this all we should expect

For all the effort

To be let down by country

When it’s help is needed most

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Question of Significance

You see me on the street, but you do not see me.

I am, but a speck of dust caught in the beam of a streetlight.

Insignificant in this grand and glorious scheme,

But not so insignificant to those who cherish me…as I cherish them.

Mother as I to my wife…wife as I to my daughter,

Father as I to my son…all cherish me, as I them.

Miniscule in this tidal pool of humanity as I may be

This robe I wear befits all that breathe this air,

Fed from the heartlands fertile soil,

Pleasure in grain-fed fowl or grass-fed cattle.

In you dear friends, I see a reflection of me in your life-worn faces;

Neither success nor poverty can separate us in our final hours.

You as I shall become equal to the grasses blade,

The acorn and maple leaf, meal worm and maggot

Shall all become our equals as we return to the earth whence we came.

There is no escape from this inescapable truth.

Though you persevere to nullify my worth, you can not;

For my worth lies not in your perceptions,

But in those of they who loved me.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~