The Year 2113 Poem by Renu Beri

Year 2113,
Blazed the bill-board.
In the city named Earth
Moved about young people.
No senior citizens, no babies,
Only the youth; born young,
From birth tubes.
Human beings inhabit Earth,
In perfect harmony with the elements,
Made consistent by them.


No morning rush for office,
No monotonous household chores.
Everyday, for a few hours, one works,
On one's personal Super Computer,
The rest of the day is one's own to spend.
One would think they enjoy life to the full,
But they are busy bees in search of time
To add to their allocated twenty-five years.

Time is the new currency,
It measures wealth, power and happiness.

At birth each person is gifted
Twenty five years of life.
Everyone has the right to add
Seconds, minutes and hours
Or even to lose them injudiciously.
Time can be increased by ingenuity,
Force, skill, begging and borrowing.
One can gain it by physical favours too.
Survival of the fittest is prevalent.
One has to be competent in adding to
Their share of twenty-five years.

One earns in time and pays in time,
Earnings automatically add time,
Payments subtract it.
From I D cards stamped on their hands,
Everyone can check the time left to them.
When the card shows ‘0'; one falls dead.
No need for doctors, no hospitals.
Physically you are in perfect health,
Only your time on earth is over.
You are replaced by another being,
Time allotted - Twenty-five years.

Crimes are all time related;
Stealing, cheating, misleading,
Murder by taking away time.
Offenders are punished by time deletion,
(According to the severity of the crime) .
The ultimate punishment meted out
To a time felony is
Taking away time forever.
Permanence in death is a deterrent to crime.
When nothing else stops criminals,
The final punishment of obliteration does.

People at times reach saturation.
They have lived hundreds of years,
Earning time by various activities,
Both legal and illegal;
Stealing from the feeble and the gullible.
Having lived long enough,
They decide to end their lives.
They make the necessary announcement
And arrange to give away time in charity.
Ostentatiously they donate their time and die.
They become heroes.

The term'die' is a misnomer.
No one actually dies in the year 2113.
Death is not final, as we understand it,
Except for grave offenders,
Who have forfeited their right to live.
The genes are kept safely, and;
After a lot of official consideration
Certain changes are made in them.
After a refreshing rest of a decade or two,
People are reborn as new personalities,
With a generous gift of Twenty-five years.