I'd rather be a puddle
than a Popsicle.
Can I tell you why?
Better yet, I'll start
by asking, What should
immortality cost?
It could be mine for the low-
low price of twenty-nine,
nine-ninety-nine.
Yes, in US dollars,
no cents. I've got the latter,
not the former,
at least not in this lifetime.
I might also mention
the ugly how
to get there: First flushed,
then re-pumped blue for blood,
I'd be bagged and hung
upside down in a sparing
accommodation.
If plans hatch as laid,
science'll shell me out
from gamy non-life
to patch and catch me up.
But why would it bother,
'less to pick my pickled brain
about times ago
when men couldn't see much
beyond their vanity.
And that takes me back
where I started at:
I'd rather be a puddle,
and evaporate.
6 comments:
I love the pulse and the the biting tone in this one. The rhythmic structure enhances this feeling.
Stanzas 6-8 are my favorites; but I enjoy the whole poem a lot.
I agree on your conclusions. It’s a funny thing, cryonics. I don’t believe in it; it's too easy.
If cheating death was that easy there would be lots dead spirits (et al) around.
Thanks Jenny and Ande. I wrote this after reading a long piece on the 94 year old director of a cryonics institute in Michigan. His ideas for immortality never caught on beyond a very small circle of science fiction geeks, and with good reason. It's amazing how far we'll go to try to escape death.
"I'd rather be a puddle,
and evaporate."
Just great. I really like this one, especially the ending.
If I get bored with life maybe I'll fly my spaceship into a star and disintegrate spectacularly... Why do people have issues with immortality anyway? Life is too much fun, and too precious, to give it up without a fight. How can people defend death?
Cryonics tries to save your brain in as good of shape as currently possible. Much of the money it supposedly costs is actually being set aside and invested so it can eventually be used for future research, to reverse brain damage and regrow organs.
They can already "print" new blood vessels and working kidneys from cells. This isn't science fiction, it is ongoing research. Google organ printing and tissue engineering... It is really fascinating stuff.
Luke, that was a interesting comment. Sorry Francis if I use up your space. You’re right. Life can be fun. My main objection to cryonics is that it doesn’t work. A dead brain is most probably just a dead brain. The idea to resurrect something which alive because its constant (harmonical) movements doesn’t work. I think it’s better to invest work and energy in preserving life.
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