Advice To a Beauty Queen

Now that all the world-honored bloom you have, How do you plan to run the affairs of this estate? Whatever your thrifty or careless arrangement, Remember that Nature gives in order to confiscate. So what you think you so luckily have is not yours, It all belongs to that incorruptible giver and taker Who cannot be beguiled by the naïve innocence Of those unaware of the age-old callous Breaker. You may desire to invest your exceptional refinement In wanton schemes ungrateful to the giving hand, And reap the empty cup of an unbefitting investment; Or, like the wise servant, put your treasure to profit. Yet all these sway nothing in the long counting of time. It is the unfailing nature of the un-delaying Master To whip out her timely sickle and prune into eternity All the old polish to give way to some newer luster.