As I slide into the capsule

it presses down on me.

Am I to be buried here

in a space age release

into the dark unknown?

Visions of Spock hurtling

through space in his shining

and smooth black sphere

invade my consciousness.

Here round lights line the edge.

Reality tries to get the upper hand.

Who would put lights in a coffin?

Breathing deep I close my eyes

why look at what scares me?

An engine fires into life

and with it indescribable

sounds like heavy parts

moving, crashing together.

Heat and energy pulse through from my arms

to my body. Surely my blood is starting

to boil with this active, lashing heat

a separate entity coming from

unknown space and time.

Am I flying near the sun?

Is its massive gravity pulsing

parts from my craft? Boiling blood,

melting muscle, baking bone done?

Breathe, breathe. Smile spine smile-

it’s your intricate parts they want to

graph. It’s you that put me here.

Not burdened with imagination

you lay still as bidden while

the mind that shares your body

scatters all over the universe

of television and movie,

of rampant imagination.

An amplified voice assures me I’m done.

Out of the MRI, I breathe cool air.

Janice DeRuiter 2014