Sleeping Beauties (Cryogenics) Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Gate-crashing into tomorrow
Without a visa, friendless
Orphaned out of the past
Out-of-sync, out-of-joint
Why would anyone want to outlive their peers?

Frankenstein's creatures, reanimated mummies
Death-dodging waxen manikins
Emerging from each chrysalis of ice

Lazarus ladies and gentlemen
Like stills from a black and white movie
Anachronisms, melting out of the limbo
Of your chilly chambers

One flick of the switch
Could plunge those sleeping beauties
Into nihil.

They lie like dried herring,
Hoping to awake when their ills are curable
Each passport rubber stamped by Sci-fi morticians

Will they be quarantined by the yet-to-be-born?
Displayed in museums or peep shows
Their antiquated genes become
As odd as the Elephant Man's,
The Dodo, the curious Bearded Lady?

Orphaned out of the past
Out-of-sync, out-of-joint
Why would anyone want to outlive their peers?