Take Care or You’ll Have to Give It

When you’re young, you look out
For your old age, at least
Your next age, or you try.

You reach a point at which
You turn, look out for youth,
For what young you has done,

Which you have to put right,
Take care of, or clean up
As best you can. The young

Are told to care for old
Selves they’ll have in the end,
But if the end waits long,

Old selves turn out to be
As Miss Smith to her aunt,
And find that they look out

For one who used to look
Out for them—the more so,
The less care the youth took.