If Billions Of Human Beings Poem by Shalom Freedman

IF BILLION OF HUMAN BEINGS

“If billions of human beings
Have passed from the earth
Without our even knowing their names-
If so many species
Were here
And are now gone -
If Empires and Civilizations erased-
If so so much has been lost
So much greater than myself -
Why can’t I accept
That the manuscripts of a single individual
may disappear as if they never were-

I did what I did
When I did it-
And what remains of it
Is not for me to judge.”

So the cowardly voice of irresponsibility
Escapes the duty of correcting and editing and ordering
And trying to save the work I have given my life to.