Cryptobiosis, or

so here you might imagine an arrow

shot from a bow and traveling deep into space

at a high rate of speed

so far away now it looks like

slow motion

released from a location on earth

but probably somewhere

let’s be honest

in the American midwest

going out and on for lightyears

imbued with importance

carrying a message

a final sign

we once were here

all the moms

soldiers explorers doctors artists writers musicians philosophers activists pilgrims city planners politicians MRI technicians software developers middle school English teachers well-tipped golf caddies NASCAR drivers sailors child actors magicians’ assistants air traffic controllers managers of Subway® sandwich shop franchise locations social media influencers DJs event planners arborists telemarketers veterinarians funeral home consultants hedge fund managers literary critics and dads

our memory of having lived

lighting out into ever expanding space

so slowly

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precious golden arrow

carry us gently to infinity

you wake from a dream about the future

you are hungover or have lost the ability to rise under imperfect conditions

hours of sleep, units of hydration, levels of blood sugar and cortisol

in an ongoing state of lack

this requires substantial effort

a being may see its life

as a discrete sequence of events

lined up like dominos

waiting to topple

one moment leaning

into the next

after the last

this other one might see

a long and gentle arching

beam of multicolored light

to be ridden like a slide

or wild kind snake

the geoduck (phon. gooey-duck)

is a giant saltwater clam

with an elephant trunk

overspilling its shell

and no brain or eyes

but prized, see

for its distinct savory flavor

crunchy texture

aphrodisiac side effects

and living as long

as 160 years

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at night

you see lights

flashing in the pines

the average human life lasts 79 years

the oldest koi fish

lived to 226

when are they coming

to get you

and so an exploratory committee was formed

and the leaders were pleased

because the readouts promised excellent conditions

for a condo with a patio

beachfront property

saltwater blue

fine yellow light at the center

and all these benevolent marsupials

beautiful stuff carpeting the ground

breathing life into the air

which was also full of all these other things

who were singing and breathing

to each other

about everything else

but then someone on the excavation team

discovered a critical error

an untreatable cancer

had infected the body

and was beginning to spread

maybe you see it now

just a glow starting around the edges

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tortoises are often cited

as the longest living terrestrials

Harriet, giant tortoise

disembarked from Darwin’s ship

after the long and harrowing expedition

of 1835

then died in an Australian zoo

in 2006

Adwaita

giant tortoise

gift to a British officer

East India Company, 1750

lived vigorously

until his shell cracked

2005

today the oldest tortoise

lives on the Island of Saint Helena

stalking the dewy grounds

of the governor’s lime green plantation house

blind

with no sense of smell

but very good hearing

193 years old

Jonathan

the arrow is slipping

silently through the Kuiper belt

leaving an orange dusted transit path

smoky memories of us ribbon outward

or maybe an impression

indentations on a plane made by waves of vibrating light

trace a shape

if each word equals

a pocket of air

that stays inflated

unless it’s deleted

is this a marker

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Lin Wang, Asian Elephant, 86 years

Greater, Greater Flamingo, 83 years

Cookie, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, 83 years

Thaao, Andean Condor, 80 years

Ol’ Billy, Horse, 62 years

Andreas, European Brown Bear, 50 years, World’s Oldest Bear

cows vs. goats

dogs vs. crows

mammals have the hardest time

keeping clung to earth

but for one exception

homo sapiens

Jeanne Clement, b. February 21, 1875, d. August 4, 1997, 122 years and 164 days

Kane Tanaka, b. January 2, 1903, d. April 19, 2022, 119 years and 107 days

meanwhile the ocean teems

densely with immortals

this may not be surprising

Freshwater Pearl Mussel, 250 years

Greenland Shark, 392 years

Icelandic Ocean Quahog, 507 years

Giant Barrel Sponge, 2,300 years

Black Corral, 4,265 years

Glass Sponge, 10,000+ years

but it’s just not that impressive

when a sponge outlives a human

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you try to remember a time when you could make it

through a day without some shard of noise

piercing in to strike you with wonder

whether you’d made the right decisions

if the path from there to here wasn’t

where else you would be

you are stuck watching a movie of someone else’s life

in 50 years

the number of dead people on social media

will begin to outnumber the living

by 2100

some estimate the total

profiles of the deceased

at 5 billion

the entire population of earth

in 1987

much more impressive to think

we have already become immortals

that our selves outlive ourselves

when the afterlife is data

a server farm is Valhalla

the arrow gliding softly into a tide of oncoming waves

parts them passing in the opposite direction

encrypted chatter mingles with radio static

your credit card number and email address

holding hands with ancient distortion

the sky goes dark again

you know they must be there

hanging back

like always

watching us make our go

hear them cheering?

they’re waving big foam fingers and drinking beers in the bleachers

if the earth is round it’s a ring

for pro wrestling

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seamonkeys and nematodes

waterbears and brine shrimp

roundworms and tardigrades

stop all their metabolic processes at will

should conditions become imperfect

levels of water and oxygen

toxicity and temperature

environmental solute concentration

falling out of balance

into a state of lack

brine shrimp, roundworms, tardigrades

just stop themselves from living

and pick it back up later

when the timing is better

turritopsis nutricula

a small hydrozoan

the “immortal jellyfish”

passes repeatedly backward

into earlier stages of its lifecycle

changing one cell into another indefinitely

rendering its potential lifespan infinite

how imperfect

can conditions get

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what if

they’ve already been here

looked around

shrugged

and left

^Notes

^{Facts about humans, animals, space, earth, and the Internet are casually and superficially researched and sourced from search engines and Wikipedia.}

^{Text in all caps is an assemblage of spam email subject lines and pay-per-click advertising language.}

^{The golden photograph records aboard}^{Voyager 1}^and^{Voyager 2}^{were launched into space in 1977, exited the heliopause to interstellar space in 2012, and are still in transit today}