Election Section

Space Ship

By Lenore Waters
Friday December 29, 2006

On the way to the kitchen at midnight 

To get a glass of water, 

I pass the computer desk. 

The green and red tiny lights, some round, some oblong, some bright 

In the blackness 

The refrigerator hums 

For a moment—call it a nanu second— 

I feel I am at the controls of a Star Trek like space ship 

Hurtling through the universe on an unknown mission 

I turn, feeling disoriented, to the window. 

The streetlight casts a warm amber glow on the street below, 

The dry leaves are moving about in the wind. 

Porch lights are on in the neighbors’ bungalows. 

I am still on planet Berkeley.