Slowly Slowly Old Man Poem by Shalom Freedman

The aches and pains are temporarily gone
Life is good again
Crankiness irritability
Are no longer necessary
No pain.-no complaint
And yet I know
I am not as free as I was
I cannot just get up and move the way I want
Without thinking about it
I must watch this movement this way
And that movement that
Hurt comes from stepping wrongly
Disaster waits in any slip to a fall
Caution is needed
and carefulness required
slowly slowly old man
the world
or some of it
is still open before you
but watch the way you get to it
and go through it
a little bit at a time
and with rest on the way
safety to yourself above all
and interest in it -real still- but less.