An Apology To The Reader Who Has Written Me A Message I Have Not Answered Poem by Shalom Freedman

AN APOLOGY TO THE READER WHO HAS WRITTEN A MESSAGE TO ME I HAVE NOT ANSWERED

The real apology is not this poem
It is one by one
Reader by reader
Answering each one
Who has ever written me.

It is reading all the poems of others
I do not want to say
A ‘real no’ or a ‘false yes’ to.

It is opening myself
To perhaps a true friend
To perhaps one whose writing
I see better than my own.

The real apology
Is in opening up to the poems of the many unknown others.

Will I do this
Will I give it the time
When I already am guilty
Of not using my limited time
To correct my past work?

Dear Reader,
I apologize, I do not know.