The broke and poor were stuffed into cryosleep
their bodies stored segmented on freezer floors.
Only clumps of vitrified cells to the ruling class,
blood swapped for antifreeze, dreams detached.
Adult humans awoken as convenient labor, flesh
always cheaper than spawning construction bots.
Thawed out in 400-year labor cycles, humans are
recycled as cheap work and then deposited back
without wage, only chances to see futures made
by them, not for, raising edifices they can’t need.
Families are defunct. Mother and son never held
together out of sleep prevents added distractions
and any bond forming except one between bricks.
There is no communication out into the universe,
years meaningless—6763 or 2079 both identical.
Social progress turned illusion when the wealthy
altered into immortal effigies of endless appetites.
The only slog forward came from awakened fury
of those repeatedly roused from suspended death.
But revolt is easy to stifle when life is abbreviated,
clandestine plots opposing cryo guns and ice filling
cells until sealed and subdued to be awoken in 400.
The workers rise each reset to no innovation, only
hollow buildings with no one left to haunt any halls.
The ruling class constructs measureless shell cities
to one-up a fading population with empty prestige.
Inequal immortality breeds cynicism and resilience
bristling deep-coded in frozen and defrosted cells.
Someone sneaks in an infinitesimal system error,
every cryopod cycle accruing a minute sabotage
slowly modifying to let sleeping minds connect,
dream as one shared transmitted consciousness.
But revolution still remains 10,000 years distant
because hope, we find, takes the longest to build.
Casey Aimer holds master’s degrees in both poetry and publishing and works for a non-profit publishing science research articles. He is co-founder of Radon Journal, an anarchist science fiction publisher. His work has been featured in Star*Line, Ars Medica, The Fictional Café, and he is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet. An active SFPA member, he was a 2023 Rhysling Award juror.
