I Am Not As Bad As I Should Be For My Age Poem by Shalom Freedman

I AM NOT AS BAD AS I SHOULD BE FOR MY AGE

I am not as bad as I should be for my age
Many my age are already dead
Many my age are already in the wheelchairs
Or with the walkers
Many my age are stooped and slow in walking
Many are all white and not just partly so
Many my age are confused
Many cannot think or work as they once did
Many would get out of breath walking up the hills I walk

I am not as bad as I should be for my age
As I could be for my age

Should I now make a list of all the ways
In which I have lost powers
And am not as I was?

Should I say it will not be long before I join
Many others my age in the same infirmities?

A poem can be written about anything
This is not a Poem of Despair
A poem rather of realistic assessment
It is not a very poetic poem

But then poetic poetry is a power I seem to have lost

I am not as bad
As I should be for my age
But in so many things I was not very good anyway