Reminder from Hazlitt's "On the Fear of Death"

From fretful birth
to fretful dearth of years
as yesterday damns tomorrow
    with its claims
infant joie de vivre
    burns dimmer
tempestuous youth    in despite confronts
    middle old age
despised and later tolerated
    whereupon would to the contrary
delay in vanity
    nunc dimitis
and borrow access to what is denied
    future untold
rather than boldly stand up and deliver
    divorce from self


mmvi