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 ~~
Republican, democrat,
Black, white,
Feminist, chauvinist,
Gay, straight,
Religious, atheist,
Liberal, conservative,
Pacifist, warmonger,
Proletariat, capitalist,
Pro-life, pro-choice,
Rich, poor,
Extremist, moderate,
Old, young,
Patriotic, unpatriotic,
Native, immigrant,
We spend so much time segregating ourselves into categories,
That we forget we are all the same.
We are born, we live and then we die,
This is non-negotiable.
Maybe if took the time to walk in our brother’s shoes
We would be less hurried to take vengeance
And this world would be a more peaceful and beautiful place.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
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 ~~
Lest we forget him
Michael Brown finally rests
But the fight goes on
His family still in mourning
Must live a life without him
This is a disgrace
As a nation we should weep
Drowning in our tears
Not for Ferguson alone
But for ourselves and country
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
With tears I say goodbye
Though I do not know your pain,
Nor the pain of your ancestors
Inflicted at the hands of those that look like me.
When I look in the mirror
I am not proud,
I am not proud of our past,
Not proud of of our inhumanity,
Not proud of the picture our hands are painting.
With a broad brush,
We paint in your blood,
Red and warm as mine
Though left to dry cold in the streets.
We stand around,
As if awaiting applause,
While your spirit fades,
Showing just how little we care.
I know this is not me,
Though I know you can’t see it;
And that these words are just words
Unable to bring you back from the dead.
Your family grieves,
But their grief is overshadowed,
Trampled down under the weight of constant diversions
Portraying you as something less than human.
Yet none of this matters!
Injustice cannot hide forever
Behind an iron blue citadel
Mortared with lies, racism and hatred.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
AUTHORS NOTE: I was not going to write another piece about the tragedy in Ferguson Missouri today, but I find Michael Browns’s death so troubling that I couldn’t help myself. His death in my eyes shows that racism still runs rampant in this country though many of us would prefer not to admit it. For those that would like to pretend this never happened, I think it is time you opened your eyes. Explain to me how being stopped for jaywalking could escalate to the point where a young man is shot six times and killed, then left alone in the street for so long. This is completely beyond my comprehension.
Anger–you can see it on their grimaced faces;
Marching, hands raised in civil defiance.
Neither curfew nor militarization will quell them
In the face of injustice.
What passes for authority tries to divert,
Maybe he took the “sweets”, maybe he didn’t,
Maybe he smoked a little weed,
Maybe jaywalking is a capital crime in the south,
Maybe murder is ignored when hidden behind a badge.
So much for civil rights,
So much for equality under the law,
So much for compassion and common decency.
He was eighteen and unarmed,
Of this there is no dispute!
Perhaps he wasn’t an angel…are any of us?
I have bent the law,
Maybe even broken it a time or two,
But I’m still here, breathing, smiling, growing older.
We can deny–
That racism exists,
We can deny–
That blacks are treated differently than whites,
We can deny–
That skin color matters,
But denial doesn’t make it so!
Changing laws do not change hearts,
And time does not necessarily heal…
These are irrefutable facts.
Behind closed doors we disrobe,
Taking off our suit of political correctness,
To reveal naked hate.
We spew the epithets of our fathers,
Who broke the backs of an unwilling immigrant.
It’s as though times have never changed…
And perhaps they haven’t.
The manacles once of iron are now invisible,
The whips of braided leather no longer leave scars,
But the pain, fear and displacement still exists
…In this twenty-first century.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Frozen to the bone.
Bleeding heart ripped from its soul;
Faith in man–fading!
In an eyes blink we do kill,
No remorse ‘til it’s too late. This seems oh so cold,
Against what we preach is right,
Yet it doesn’t stop.
We are Neanderthals still,
Little evolved from our past.
Please don’t fool yourselves,
We are wolves disguised as sheep,
Prepared to slaughter.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Show me man’s kindness
Show me man’s humanity
In spite of himself
I’m not sure it’s possible
With the evil he commits
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Death of our future;
Skin color–judge and jury
In prejudice hands.
O’ the man he might have been,
Greatness he might have attained!
We will never know
As the blood pool will attest.
Our youth sacrificed
For their outward appearance
Instead of what’s in the heart.
This is pure hatred,
Revealing the blackened soul
Of years long gone by.
We thought we were above this
In one nation under God.
~~ 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 ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 