Beyond our brain I wonder,
What should we next protect?
To guard from a lifestyle blunder,
Which body part to elect?

I have my own opinion here,
From what I see each day.
To me the selection is crippling clear,
For their neglect, a price we'll pay.

I've noticed that the simple task,
Of getting from A to B.
Is for so many quite a tricky ask,
And as when young, no more as free.

To amble and walk or jog and run,
We should most be free to do.
But too quickly we become undone,
As disability we accrue.

Choices which we daily make,
Risk limiting freedom's gift.
And each incremental small mistake,
Creates an ever greater rift.

Convenience is a kindly killer,
Ironic limiting our choices.
Its hand upon our guiding tiller,
Can make us deaf to warning voices.

Why can we not in later life,
Enjoy mobility as when young?
Instead replaced with strolling strife,
When to be free we could have clung.

Legs, our linchpins to freedom's wheel,
Their importance underrated.
Until too late, when we needless feel,
We've not this truth appreciated.

Frailty lurks and patient waits,
For us to fall into its traps.
Each day a step towards it baits,
Until both legs in bondage wraps.

And things we prior could free enjoy,
Are denied us, out of reach.
New methods we now need to employ,
As to the past too late beseech.

Then slowly what remains is gone,
And our independence with it.
As a new life we now embark upon,
Lost, the freedom of the Linnet.

Of course there are many reasons,
Beyond what we control.
Which advance as with the seasons,
And inevitable is their toll.

But even here we can intervene,
To delay or reduce decline.
And not prematurely loose the sheen,
So retain that stroll-strong shine.

So how to insure against this fate,
And be sure our later years.
Are spared a regret of being too late,
All susceptible, this hears.

My message is, I encourage and plead,
To keep mobility at the fore.
And this warning urgently pay heed,
Potential outcomes don't ignore.

Keep head and torso on the move,
By exercising lower limbs.
Future prospects to try improve,
So, avoid short-termist whims.

Presented with still and moving stairs,
Take the former if you can.
This option about your future cares,
Its quality and its span.

Try take a steady daily walk,
Around your neighborhood.
Opportunity with your legs to talk,
Their health be better understood.

Oh, and though so often seems case,
A dog is not a walking must.
So, with undistracted thought replace,
A walk for you, the greater must.

Park your car in the furthest bay,
From the entrance to the shop.
Enjoy being the remotest one away,
Avoid the needless shortest hop.

Pull on your pants and tie your shoes,
Whilst unsupported on one leg.
Lest this ability to balance loose,
Try such example steps I beg.

Make your aim being independent,
To the end of life's short span.
So you enjoy it full resplendent,
Being leg strong as long you can.