Tag Archives: wealth

Gone Are Those Days

Gone are those days

You know…the ones where our children are better off than we are.

What is better for them,

Saddled with debt for an education that guarantees them nothing,

Grown children living with their parents,

Prospects for their futures clouded,

Shadowed by unceasing war?

For many taking up arms for their country the only way to survive

Taking injury and death as necessary risks.

Is this what we wanted for our children,

Is this what our parents had hoped for us?

Where do they go from here in this country divided?

Everything is in turmoil!

The government is polarized,

The people brainwashed by extremist media.

Bankers, the greatest threat as described by our founders

Have slithered their way into our capital’s marble halls.

So much promise has been squandered.

This once great nation is sacrificing its young

And for what, pieces of gold,

A return to a past that has long since died,

Survival of the fittest where the rich become richer

And everyone else becomes irrelevant.

This is not the country I knew and loved,

It is an abomination of the worst kind

Feasting on the bones and blood of our children

To fuel its unquenchable lust and greed.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Money is Power (Senryu)

Money is power

Survival of the fittest

And we aren’t worthy

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Wretched Gather

The wretched gather

This place of drink and of smoke

Bright lights and promise

Weeks wages folded neatly

Hidden in their Sunday best

There is no preacher

No pews, no heavenly choir

To welcome the flock

Yet hope for the future lives

In each pull, in each hand dealt

Praying for riches

To resurrect their belief

In this countries dream

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

For The Kings Amusement

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.

This Walk Amongst The Dead

This walk amongst the dead.

This dance with mortality.

Partnered with those that believe they will live forever.

Gathering, greedily hoarding every last cent

They race to the pinnacle of their professions

At the expense of those they deem competition,

Trampling anyone who gets in their way.

Fattened as the calf bank accounts swell as do their bellies.

Designer clothes and jewelry adorn their swollen vessels.

No thought do they give to the rest of humanity;

Their fellow man is but an impedance to future success.

They have no time for them,

No time for their mates nor their children,

No time for their brothers and sisters that share this earth.

What is their endgame?

When is enough, enough?

They don’t realize that they are already dead,

Dead to the world, their mates and their children.

Paupers as they were at birth

With their final blink there will be no wealth,

No grand houses,

No designer clothes,

No jewelry;

No one will weep on their pine box.

When the last shovel-full of dirt is thrown on their grave

They will be utterly alone, naked and penniless

–Before their Maker.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Blink And It Is Gone

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 ~~

 

Echoes Of Laughter

Echoes of laughter

Smiling faces of children

–Innocence at play

Sights, sounds of another time

When being a kid was cool

The cries of hunger

Tears streaming down sunken cheeks

–Modern travesty

While the rich still get richer

Children starve for no reason

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Sting (Haiku) / Crystal (Senryu)

Sting of Scorching Sands (Haiku)

Sting of scorching sands

Turning silica to glass

Natures melting pot

~

Crystal and Fine Wines (Senryu)

Crystal and fine wines

Regalia of the snooty

The harder they fall

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Prompt: Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie – Heeding Haiku with HA: Improving Our Haiku #2

~

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Since I had never intentionally written a senryu I thought Ha’s prompt this week might be the perfect opportunity to try…so here it goes.

With Irony I Look Back On July The Fourth

With irony I look back on July the fourth,

Commemorating separation from the British Crown.

Decrying aristocrats and their gorging worth

And the treatment of their subjects trampling down.

 

Open your eyes and look at us now,

Governed and judged by aristocrats galore.

Expected to beg, grovel and bow

Just as we did to King George before.

 

Over two hundred years we’ve learned nothing it’s clear

As again we submit to the court and its king.

Giving away what we should have held dear

For the promise of a golden ring.

 

This golden ring offered in hopes to divide

The right from the left I am sure

Confusing the masses with promises to provide

Answers to our problems through their cure.

 

But the cure is poisoned by their quest for greater wealth,

On the backs of those who can least afford.

Tricking them to believe by their dishonest stealth,

That there’s nothing but truth in their word.

 

Illusion and trickery is the game of the day,

Substance something long ago past.

Diverting ones blame is the partisan way,

Spewing venom as long as it lasts.

 

If truth does not sell then they coat it in lies,

Said long enough they’re bound to believe.

People are gullible say their political spies,

They’ll swallow whatever we conceive.

 

Free press is now gone in lieu of partisan hacks,

Towing their hate-filled party lines.

Convincing the audience that they’re watching their backs,

While raking in millions all the time.

 

With sadness I watch our republic disappear

Under the weight of corruption and greed.

Leaving the powerless amongst us I fear

To scratch and claw for all that they need.

 

Convinced they’re a burden and a waste of our time

Pretending that they don’t exist.

From their pit of despair alone they’re left to climb,

Should they fail it’s unlikely they’ll be missed.

 

America has lost the humanity it once had,

Trading it for profit and conceit.

Where helping one another was more than a fad,

It was a facet of what made us complete.

 

Deception is all part of the elites master plan

Pitting each man against his brother.

Feeding the masses as much fear as they can,

Blaming the cause on another.

 

Unless we take a stand, the ninety-nine percent,

Against the one percent we’ve allowed to rule us.

Expect nothing more than this we consent,

But to allow the bourgeois to fool us.

 

This my dear friends is my greatest fret,

With each and every fourth of July.

That under their thumbs, ever more we do get,

Until America shrivels up and dies.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Suffocated (Acrostic)

Slowly–we are drowning

Under the weight of our own pomposity

Foolishly choking our humanity with laws

Failing to realize our divinity

Overcompensating

Could we not, would we not, if…

Allowed to live as we were designed

Think for ourselves

Ending domination by the oligarchy

Determining our own intention

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~