It's hard when young to empathise,
With yourself long-lived and old.
Even harder to be young and wise,
As if your future were foretold.

But what you do and how you live,
May determine future fate.
And it's for you your ageing self to give,
Advantage now before too late.

We're tempted to indulge the now,
As of course we sometimes should.
But we also need to till and plough,
To be sure the future's good.

For illness which may visit when,
We need our health the most.
Needn't find at three score years and ten,
That we've become its hapless host.

So think yourself as living long,
Enjoy a little less for now.
For though there's not a right or wrong,
There is a when and how.