If asked
where would I want to end
now!
in this instant
six feet under
would be my answer
without much thought
and any shred of care

And is there anything
remaining
to care about

And thoughts
they have long dissolved
in the thick mist of fuzzy answers
years ago

But then
being framed as characters
for eternity
in my favourite book
would be a great second thought

The book
maybe *The Three-Body Problem*
or *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas*
and the *Foundation* series
would be a better escape
they seemed to have escaped the annihilation
the life they had built
and loved
survived in the end

Better still
a satire in its time
the first of its kind
à la *Don Quixote*
Cervantes didn’t intend it to be
and yet it feels surreal
unintentionally
in these times

Though my first choice
obviously would be
*Nineteen Eighty-Four*
where the horror is
unnamed