How Many Old Men Have I Known Poem by Shalom Freedman

HOW MANY OLD MEN HAVE I KNOWN

How many old men have I known
Who have felt themselves
Burnishing unused
Alive with their lives over?

How many old men
Have I known
Who have felt a shame of uselessness
A wishing it was all over with already?

How many old men
Have I known
Like myself
Who wonder
How this could possibly have happened

And the hero one knew the world needed most
Has nothing to do anymore?