I Am Old/But I Still Walk Alright Poem by Shalom Freedman

I AM OLD/ BUT I STILL WALK ALRIGHT

I am old
But I still walk alright
I see well with my glasses
My hearing may not be what it was
But I hear well enough
I still can read
I remember in a fair way
It's not what it was
But it's still alright-

Yet Time is Time
And the frail and feeble
I see everywhere
The future mirror
I shrink from holding up to myself


Will I really be like them
Lose so much and hold on desperately to life?
Insist on all my medications
Angrily demand from my helper
To be taken to the toilet now?

Will I lose my independence
And in my own small ugly way
Enslave those around me
To keep me barely alive?

I don't know what Time will bring
I wonder if there can be a happy death
Before the pain and trouble for others
Is long extended

I am old now
But now as old as I am going to be
I am not that bad now
But if I hang around long enough
It will become very bad indeed.