Old Souls

Last Night on Youtube in 1903

.

Last night on YouTube

in “The Oldest Ever Photos of England,”

I paused the high-definition colorized video

when I spied you on screen

in your home-spun work clothes

ragged shirt and vest open down your throat

your first mustache drooping sad

on your resolute young face

seventeen orphaned for six years

standing in stopped time

120-some years ago in 1903

in a crowd of destitute working men

and desperate boys

Victorian rag-pickers and mudlarks

standing quiet hungry outside

a Salvation Army Barracks in London

during the morning crush

of yawning men having waked

in beds twopence a night

in lodging houses

finding a charity meal ticket

dropped by Salvationists

on their bunks during the night

queuing up for a farthing breakfast

a quarter of a penny

cheese and crust

with Jesus Christ.

I wanted to travel back in time

like the movies and save you.

.

.