On being an old soul

It is difficult to be an old soul
Within this world of ours
I’ve only known a few
Who understand its powers

It is easy to see the grand mistakes
Others will take on
It is imperative we let them be
And let them carry on

For it is within each soul’s contract
To decide the path in which their life will take
We must not dissuade them from their destiny
For if we do, it may change their fate.

Mary Carol Ann Like
Copyright June 2014

I'm never more in love with you
than I am in those moments
that you're at your most vulnerable

Please don't get me wrong.
I appreciate what you are trying to do,
but you don't send salt and pepper to a starving nation.
I've been dealing with assault of the mind
and inflammation of the soul
in a way no whole-wheat diet or
heartburn medication could ever fix.
I've got all these little tips
and all these little tricks
for how to fold anger up like an origami crane
until it looks somewhat like a punchline.
The flaw in the design of this art
is that no matter how many were made
they couldn't cure Sadako's leukemia.

Perhaps it's an ongoing theme in my work
to shirk all these lies I've been told.
To mold the past into a weapon
to harpoon the future with like a humpback whale.
But I've watched razors sail
across the surface of my skin like a hundred tiny boats
and while I'm making my way in this sink-or-float Earth,
I still have the spirituality
to make a penny feel like more than what it's worth.

I can't make your life having meaning.
I can't give you the feeling you get
on that 999th paper crane,
but I spend my whole life trying to catch
thunder in a wine bottle.
It's just a noise,
and it exists only ringing in the ears
of frightened children
and bringing the tears of overjoyed children
in Africa.