It was the one where Captain Benjamin Sisko
traveled to the Badlands with
Maquis leader Michael Eddington,
while the Jem’ Hadar blasted at their ship.

I sat on the couch
absorbing the dramatic dialogue.
I felt lightyears away.
I handed over a form of me to myself,

I felt like Michael Eddington,
not wanting to give up freedom,
not wanting to pilot the ship anymore.
I served a sober mind, an organized mind,
but am now rebelling against it,
leading myself the way I need to.

It felt like Sisko gave me an order to toke,
or at least lie there, spaced out.
He also made Eddington pilot the ship,
whether he liked it or not.
Now that I am high, I still have to pilot the ship,
Whether I like it or not.
I am boldly somewhere I haven’t been in years. 

I sat worried for the Starfleet runabout,
as the genetically made,
drug addicted Jem’ Hadar
blasted the ship,
like the buried yearning for
junk or booze,
approaching at high speeds.

Clay Hunt is from Modesto, California. He currently lives in Oakland where he studies Literature at UC Berkeley. He has works forthcoming in The Button Eye Review and Beyond Words Literary Magazine.