Shades of former selves in the caverns below
Mill around the Lethe and the Styx, abstract .
Coda for the ages of man from Shakespeare
   Settle in ebbing .

Metabolic failings announce onsetting
Aging filching life from the cells and tissues :
Fading sight, and silence replaced with phantom
   Chirping of crickets .

Souvenirs of memory counter symptoms,
Leading one to question the worth of life ;
Databases adding up bits of selfhood—
   Proof of existence

More alive than life, that is only machine :
Longing spirit acting despite the laws of
Thermodynamics that slow the spinning gears
   Toward a standstill .