In a galaxy where law and order
were distinctly relative ideas,
Han Solo knew how to ride the border
between good and goodish, jumping light years
while treating smuggling as a kind of sport.
And if his so-called “hunk-of-junk” spaceship
weren’t retrofitted with warp drive to thwart
hulking Star Destroyers and give the slip
to Bounty Hunters, he and his hairy
co-pilot, Chewbacca, his only pal,   
would have stood no chance against such scary    
monsters as sarlaccs, exogorths, et al. 
But it turns out that speed is all in space.
That, and wonky sense of grace. 

Andrew Pidoux is the author of Year of the Lion (Salt, 2010). Recent poems of his have appeared in African American Review, Pacific Review, and Punchnel’s, stories in FishFood, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, and Turk’s Head Review, and comics in Forge and Wilderness House.