I Will Be Struggling Against Depression/For The Rest Of My Life Poem by Shalom Freedman

I WILL BE STRUGGLING AGAINST DEPRESSION

I will be struggling against depression
For the rest of my life-
I know this now
Too much has happened
And too much will happen
That is not alright-
It is the grave of course
But also the inevitable decline
The sickness
The losses of friends
The burning unused
The time and more time
The aches and pains and inability
The unwilling letting others down
Being a burden to those one loves
The indignity the helplessness
The sudden discovery of a new problem
Or an old one getting worse
It will be a struggle
To not let others see and be influenced
To not let them down
I hope I will do better in this
Than I am doing now
But I suspect
It also will be worse.