If I Could Only Bear My Own Silence Poem by Shalom Freedman

IF I COULD ONLY BEAR MY OWN SILENCE

If I could only bear my own silence
If I could only be quiet and still
If I could only let the world say itself
Without my commentary,

If I could only be wise enough
To know all my words
‘Vanity of vanity of vanity.
’
Oh again and again and again
As now
I must say that I am -

But in this world of billions now
And billions more before
And billions more after
Why me?
Why my name?

‘Vanity of vanities’
All aloud again.