they built suicide pods that look like tanning beds

for all the advances in medication the one treatment they always tend to forget is for the incorrigible symptom of living

pay the fee

press the button

go to sleep

commerce boiled down to it’s finest point

you get what you pay for

even if it is the last thing you need to buy

across the country the malls have turned to graveyards

what more fitting place to lay the beds than on the head of the rusty nail of capitalism

apply a generous cultist discount

every fifteenth soul released fifteen percent off

bring your friends

set em up by the food court

free meal upgrades to anyone about to take the final sleep

what’s the difference in having a triple bacon heart burster if you are just going to die anyway

make the pods super sized

no need to shame your customers

make them comfortable

set the whole thing up like an amusement park

make the haunted mall the happiest place on earth

all the ghosts of shoppers past can gather and watch the fun

a lazy river of specially arrayed lights that induce a feeling of peace and triggers childhood memories

winding through the former homes of giant retail stores that had to lay down in a pod of their own years before

the concrete monolith becoming a suicide pod of it’s own

hulking spectres of a former booming economy

so many people die in their homes or at the hospital

but the mall

home to tentative first dates and awkward hand holding

where long ago first bikes were bought, groups of boys teased groups of girls

school clothes were bought

ears were pierced

outrageously high interest rate credit cards were handed out to anyone willing to sign their lives away

fountains long dried up where coins were tossed and wishes were made

only to be vacuumed up and put into long emptied coffers

now just cover the walls in black curtains

pipe some spiritual sounding music through the tinny speakers

and let the consumers purchase what they desire most

an end to consuming

an end to the grind that eventually leaves us all dust anyway

bring us your tired

your somewhat poor

your wretched masses yearning to be finally free

the wretched refuse of society’s shore

and bring a friend

buy one get one half off

give the people the reason they have been looking for to go back to the malls

a guarantee of finding exactly what they desire

eject the emptied husks into a series of mulching machines underground and redistribute the remains as fertilizer for the forest planted in the vacant parking lots

save the world one life at a time

no need to advertise

just paint a finish line at the front doors

the rat race ends here

you deserve a break

come in and lie down