A Lesson From Sam Berns Of Blessed Memory Poem by Shalom Freedman

Who died yesterday at the age of seventeen
Of complications from Progeria

“Be O.K. with what you can’t do, because there is so much you can do.”

I watch on YouTube the young man who looks something like an old man
He does not want to be pitied
He explains his way in Happiness

Humbled I think that there are so many things
I an old man still have
That he will never have

Sorrow comes
I am ashamed of myself

He lived such a short life
And with so many difficulties

I will try in the future to focus less
On all I have not done and probably can never do

Life and disease are merciless
The young man is gone

I am an old man still alive
I still can write a poem for myself
And for the memory of another
Of the many teachers
I have had in the wisdom of life
I am not sure I have been able to learn from.