Borrowed Time - Aug 6 2025

 

Borrowed Time

Aug 6 2025

They want to live forever.

But what if everyone did?

Live, that is

not want.

And what if you were condemned

to immortality,

no matter how demented, infirm

wracked by pain?

Sometimes, it’s just living

to see another day.

I think of the jumpers

who survived the Brooklyn Bridge,

and said halfway down, they regretted it.

Sometimes, even suicides

don’t want to die.

It could even be said I’m living

on borrowed time.

And really, who isn’t?

Or did the drunk driver

black ice

rip-tide

slip your mind?

Did you you forget adolescence,

how young men and boys

sure they’ll live forever

test themselves? 

And don’t deadlines add urgency?

Doesn’t scarcity

sweeten our brief lives?

Not to mention 

the circle of life,

turning inexorably on

and leaving you behind.

Of course, the immortals have deceived themselves.

Because the human body, including theirs 

is designed for living

programmed for death;

the life force runs down  . . . 

    an errant cell betrays you  . . . 

           a simple slip-and fall

           is your ignominious end.

And we will lay them to rest

shaking our heads

at the hubris

and self-delusion

of their futile quest.

How to Live Forever and Get Rich Doing It
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/11/how-to-live-forever-and-get-rich-doing-it

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