Billionaire signs up to be killed,
have brain digitally preserved:
mise en abyme and solely self-observed
by the machine whose switchboard maw you spilled
yourself into—decanted, then distilled
to be unembodied, blind and deaf, unnerved,
unblooded; history’s long arc had curved
to this, from primal slime to finned and gilled
to mammal sneaking fire from the dying gods
and finally fleeing this drab firmament
for a heaven where no bird has ever soared,
custom-built, although not free of frauds:
every unsaved penny earned and spent,
each timeshare sold, and every ox is gored.