National Poetry Month: The Naked Time

Stardate 1704.2


The Naked Time
(from the point of view of Kevin Thomas Riley)

They didn't seem to like it,
when I rendered Kathleen,
and I had to take away Uhura's ice cream.
There was to be a formal dance in the bowling alley,
I don't know how that got called off.
See, I was Captain Kevin Thomas Riley,
of the starship Enterprise,
though,
the navigator,
Kirk,
seemed to think our jobs were the other way around.
Ahh,
poor him,
you see how strange you get,
when you've been in space too long?
Oh,
excuse me,
I must render Kathleen,
one, more, time...

-Joie

 
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The Naked Time

Even as I speak, it is a lie
for I can feel my control…slipping…away…
and sudden emotions like a bottle
uncorked…
and I don’t…I can’t…
“I am in control of my emotions.”
I’m not.
not now.
love
preoccupies my mind—
my mother…how lonely she must have been…
the loneliness I feel now. A stranger…if only I could have told her
that I loved her…
was that too much to ask?
how could I have been so…
so….
he comes in now. My Captain,
my friend.
a friendship I can’t acknowledge even to myself.
because it makes me feel ashamed.
He is trying to tell me something,
but I interrupt…
because if I do not say these things now, they will never be
said.
because I want him to know…
because I want someone to understand.

-Noelle

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season One (Remastered Edition)