Shalom Freedman (Troy New York)

The work of many years
Lies in piles
Hidden from my care-
Years of effort
On pages most likely
Never to be read-
I don’t have the courage
To confront it
And try to save it all-
How much hope and effort did I give to those pages
No one will ever know?
How much of my life has simply been wasted
And will be thrown out in an hour as if it never were?

For years now I have been running away
From work done years before -
This poem too is a small escape
That will not save a single page
Of all I have done before.