My Pettiness In Poverty Poem by Shalom Freedman

‘My pettiness in poverty'
It is a sin to speak badly of oneself
But isn't telling the truth a first virtue?
And aren't I to blame that I have made so little money in my life?
And aren't I to blame that I did not think of my old age future?

I try to write the truth of my own life
But what I dare to detail all the failures?

Small sums I once would not have thought twice about
Are debated
I try not to buy even a book for myself
If I am small in so many ways
In money I am even smaller

I try to earn
But I can earn so little
The major work of my life- my writing
Gives nothing

And I write this now too
As if still waiting
As all these years
To be discovered and saved
As I never have been
And apparently
Never will be.