In Old Age I Cry More Easily Poem by Shalom Freedman

In old age I cry more easily
Is it the accumulated grief
For so many I knew and loved
No longer here?
And with this the thought that I soon will no longer be here?

Or is it simply at the thought of so much sadness and pain in the world?
And the witnessing of this pain?

I cry more easily
I try not to
I hold myself
But then some overwhelming sense of grief
Whose source I do not always know
comes
And I cry and cry
As if there never will be an end to this grief
And this grief the very essence and meaning of my being.