The Despair And Integrity Of Silence In Old Age Poem by Shalom Freedman

Once I had something to say
About almost everything
And most often felt urgently
The need to say it

Now thousands of issues problems difficulties stories
Things I might have something to say about
Go by me
I am silent
I know someone else will say what I most likely would have said
I know I do not matter
I am silent
And in the silence feel a quiet despair
Why I am here?
What I am for?
If what I think and feel and know
Mean nothing to anyone?
I have tried
I have tried for a long time
But do I really have anything to say
Which no one else will not say?

Silence is also a kind of integrity
The torch has passed to another generation

In my old age I will think of what I think
And let the others say what they say-


I am silent
And in my silence despair
And the world continues to go by me