How Much Life Does Anyone Have Left? Poem by Shalom Freedman

HOW MUCH LIFE DOES ANYONE HAVE LEFT?

How much life does anyone have left?
Can we know?

Life is difficult Life is strange
Life is Impossible Life is unpredictable
Life is shadows and depths
Life is what we do not understand
Life is what we love so much-

Can we know ordinarily how much we have left?
Does it matter?

We live no matter what
For as long as we live
And then we don’t live-

I do not know how much time I have left
I assume it is going to go on
I do not know
I wonder
I do not understand-

How much Life do we have left?
How much Life do I have left?

Let me go out into the morning light,
And, please God, forget about all this.