Borrowed Time Poem by Peter J White

Of all the plagues afflicting man, deserving most attention
Including Big C, (the one I scarce dare mention) ,
A high BP exacts the steepest price. If diastolics load the dice against you,
Accepting your surrender, prepare for their hard-nose agenda,
Of mirrors and smoke; woes with fancy names. Cerebral stroke,
Invisible until it strikes; arteriosclerosis - clogging some big vein with goo
And then, (this scenario’s the worst,) heart rending pain. Too late!
Out you go - feet first! Take good advice and get in shape! Arrange
A better strategy with fewer relatives in tears! Outlive them - through change!

What should you weigh? Less maybe than for years!
Find out! Hatch a plan to stay in the game,
Learn how to dance and sing again. Fat comes off as it went on. Slow.
Dieting? No, no. Eat less! A simple plan will serve you best
Through thick and thin, recording each week’s vital signs.
Have no doubt thrombosis, (for that no rhymes!) will do you in.
Do aerobics instead; a brief workout twice a day to keep you trim.
Isn’t ‘insane’ where we do the things we’ve always done
Hoping in vain for a different and a better outcome?

Three score years and ten or maybe four we live, the cliché says,
But hey! These few good moves would give another twenty more
If you’re willing to discover how it feels to be svelte;
To ratchet up your belt; give up eating such a lot.
You’re not? Then cheerio! ! See you up there when my kids are grown.
Look! don’t moan about the sacrifice you’ll make. For who anyway? It’s you!
Keep the muffled drum at coffin’s length for goodness sake,
We pass this way but once when all’s said and done. But get this. The ball’s
In your court! No one else will wake you with the lark,

Bring your medication on a tray, run you twice a day around the park.
Five small meals experts divulge, will win the battle of the bulge
And keep folk healthy, wise and lean. We need to eat God knows,
But minimise and, stone the crows! What’s with that filthy nicotine?
Don’t smoke! Two slabs of toast for breakfast, mid-morning break. Brown!
Share with a friend not with the world at large. Keep the calories down.
Soup for lunch, more toast at four and by the way, sugar and marge
Are out. A square meal at night of bread and vegetables will never
Lay you low. Have the time of your life. Dying is forever!