I Had Forgotten What Loneliness Is Poem by Shalom Freedman

I HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT LONELINESS IS

I had forgotten what loneliness
But with the house empty
Alone and without her
I remembered what it is
To have no one to live for but oneself
To have no one to give anything to
To feel that all what one is
A taking for one's own pleasure
To feel the smallness and selfishness
Being only for one's own little being-
I remembered this kind of loneliness
And thought how thankful I should be
That she is with me
In the long days and nights
Of my own little life
In my old age
Towards its end.