Longo Life
I want to live forever, Valter,
I want eight-hundred-candle cakes.
Here's my genes for you to alter:
I don't care how long it takes.
If you can do it for a fungus,
Help me out, by hook or crook –
Make my year-count so humungous
That it bursts the record-book.
I am full of fire and fervence,
I make no apology –
I may need a team of servants,
Schooled in gerontology,
But I am ready. When it's happened,
Skin like paper, not to mention
Flesh in shreds, just get some slap and
Make me up and pay my pension.
Yes, I know some trauma, minor,
May attend advancing years –
I may be like brittle china.
I don't care. I have no fears.
As things stand, I feel diminished
By the books beside my bed –
All those novels not yet finished,
All those pamphlets not yet read.
I don't care if it sounds selfish,
Or if it is thought a crime.
You'd do it for a snail or shellfish:
Come on, Valter, give me time.
You may be a drongo, Longo,
But enough is not enough.
What's that music? How's the song go?
'Live Forever' – That's the stuff.
