You Are Nowhere In Your Work Poem by Shalom Freedman

For years you have tried to get somewhere
So many times you thought you were about to get somewhere
But you got nowhere-

Now you are old
You still sometimes think you will get somewhere
You still sometimes hope-
But you know you will not
That all the years in which people go from somewhere to somewhere slightly better until they finally get there
Are gone for you-

You are old
And still at the beginning
Nowhere-

You are nowhere
And going nowhere
And that makes you nothing
You are nothing going nowhere
And you now know it -

And yet tomorrow
You will wake up
And think you will get somewhere again-

To have been a fool all your life
Is not a great virtue-

Nowhere nowhere and nothing
Are your name-
And where you are going
Is just nowhere-