Why Do You Want to Live Forever, Anyway?

Support Into the Void by reading this piece in a beautiful print edition of Issue 14 that’ll look great on your bookshelf.

The free radical theory of aging states
that atoms with unpaired electrons
damage and age us, a process
that kills us over sixty-plus years.

Imagine that—the air, poisonous.
Breathe in; hold it; exhale.
It doesn’t hurt. We can’t feel it
killing us. But if it’s true,
we’re damaged if we inhale,
asphyxiated if we don’t.

Breathe anyway.

It may be the death of us,
but these bodies creak apart
anyway—inhale and smile,
revel in our superpower:
the ability to breathe
at all, we humans,
us poison-breathers.


Natalie Schriefer Contributor
Natalie Schriefer graduated in 2019 with an MFA in Creative Writing from Southern Connecticut State University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals such as Room, Connecticut River Review, and MTV. She works as a freelance writer and editor.
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