Wasted on the young
I know because I was them once
Stubborn, invincible, I would live forever
Death seemed so far off
On the far side of halfway I want to share my lessons
Maybe this time someone will listen, then again why should this time be different
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
What lives within us,
Deep beneath skin’s shallowness?
Beauty is finite
Where the senses are concerned.
Time eats away at our flesh…
No one is immune.
The mirror lies to the young.
Tricked by ignorance
They believe it’s forever.
Surely age doth prove them wrong
As it has done for eons.
Better spent is time
Seeing the beauty within.
Love and compassion,
They have no physical bounds…
They cannot be kept.
These are things of true beauty,
Things cherished for a lifetime.
Given with no material cost,
But having immeasurable value
These are what are precious to me.
This is the beauty,
That lies deep within.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Reckless in my youth
Only to regret later
Part of growing up
.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
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 ~~
So lovely are you,
A flower frozen in time,
Beauty eternal.
To my eyes forever young,
Though to others we grow old.
Age, is illusion,
Wasted for generations
On those bearing youth.
A shame and curse to be sure
For they are blinded by years.
One day they will know
What we begrudgingly learned,
That love knows no bounds.
It is beauty internal
That time cannot take away.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
How fragile the body is,
Abused in youth…
Cigarettes, whiskey and lust.
No worries,
It will last forever…
Agile and strong.
Foolish we are in our early years
Believing we are invincible.
Then suddenly we awaken,
Backs ache,
Knees crack,
Eyesight weakens;
Who is this elder in the mirror?
Perhaps the best we can do is to live well,
Saving a piece of this body for old age.
The day the first pains arrive
Is the day we finally realize
…We aren’t immortal.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Ravages of time
I see it in the mirror
Wrinkled, grey and thin
Underneath it all I’m young
Still childlike in my mind
This shell is just that–
A shell, weather-worn with age
To be discarded
But this is not the real me
Only a facade that I show the world
~~ 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 ~~
Invincible youth
Passes in the blink of an eye
Inevitable
As it always has with age
Though not always with wisdom
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
I strive to be as the sapling;
Flexible in the path of the raging gale.
The sapling does not struggle against its foe,
It does not stand rigid as an elder,
It bows gracefully and without pretense.
Even in its youth
The sapling knows it could not withstand the fury,
So by yielding it survives unscathed.
This is the wisdom lost to maturity.
With age the sapling becomes increasingly inflexible
Until in time its trunk refuses to bend.
We are not so unlike the simple tree,
Showing great resilience in childhood,
Becoming unwavering and obstinate with age.
Oh what I would not give to be as the lowly sapling.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 