That Impact On The Culture Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

You, making your mark upon the world

you, all the copy reads or nowadays

mark has graduated to impact

mark was not strong enough it seems

I think of impact as the glacier wounding the Titanic,

fatally and is it fate I wonder

that compels us to strive so anxiously here on earth

to be seen with a legacy rivaling the roman gods everafter

they were only stone and even they crumbled as rocks do,

parts of them

God is God alone

some say it is a birthright

somehow to collide with celebrity destiny

that you deserve it, or you have earned

a place at the table they say, of history

as though it were not enough just to be here

in the Mysteries emblematic of the Divine

to feel deeply, to suffer through Time

what is it to make a mark on earth my friend

or impact when we all are dust eventually

except our souls so loving and kind, some

valorous with no predatory designs,

and drift away

except on the moon they say

one astronaut's footprint remains

where there is no wind to disturb it.

and no one there to admire.

mary angela douglas 12 march 2023