Sailing the Wine Dark Sea

Trekkers

While Captain James T. Kirk

Explored the far reaches of space,

Promoting the best of secular humanism

Or rescuing extraterrestrial civilizations

Or saving life on earth

Or flirting with every shapely humanoid,

His wife, Penelope, waited at home

Weaving the shroud by day

Only to unravel it each night,

Waiting in sorrowful hope.

Or was that someone else’s wife?

No, she was also Captain Kirk’s wife.

And she belongs to you and me

Just as much as to Odysseus.

The Enterprise traverses

A velvet black cosmos

That reflects our own wine-dark sea within.

It is in that inner domain that we encounter

One-eyed ogres

And reptilian warriors.

We learn that the eye is not always trustworthy,

And we see how human wit

Can unravel any Empire’s fearful grip.

It is there that we find the earthly beauty

Of a high school sweetheart,

And can see the bleached bones

Of those who followed

The tantalizing songs

Of another realm.

Look as far back into myth as you can,

Gaze as far ahead in imagination as you dare.

There is a corresponding depth within.

Every day

Is a day spent

Somewhere between sailing the oceans of mythical grandeur

And weaving our mortal garment at home.

                                                                           Charles Kinnaird