JULY (A TV Sci Fi Fantasy)

These are the Dog Days. This spaceship

Goes beyond the moon, beyond Mars and Venus,

Beyond the sun, beyond the great white rose

To the space station -- an afterimage

Of electric Light. There is some debate

About who is Captain, who Navigator -- The Most

Learned Man or the bearded Philosopher King.

The Drunk is exiled and takes a space

Walk. The outright Queer is suspended too

But connected by Telephone. We can join them

By Teletransportation whenever we want and we

Do want, magnanimous as we are by education.

This July we scan the splendor

Of flowers brought from Earth and planted

In rows: the chaliced rose, the pink,

The wild red poppies, the white lilies.

Married Androids tend them and think

The planet Earth from which the flowers come

Is Paradise. They say of Earth and its Galaxy:

"This is eternity, folks." We give them

Rubies in exchange for many water lilies

Which do not talk, sexy things all,

Pink and white, half open to the Light,

The pads a vibrant veridian green.

Our spaceship Julius engages

The spaceship Quintilis and we win

And settle down on an alien planet.

We are all exploring the unknown.

The Captain is bitten by a Killer Plant

And lies deprived of Sanity. The Doctor

Feeds her computer to find a cure

And discovers the Captain's Fantasy -- a couple

Lying stripped in bed, copulating.

The Captain, The Most Learned Man,

Is dying. He dies with Pride and some say

He is reborn, a babe, a possible grandson,

Who is given the Captain's name.

The Julius

Returns to Earth, a summer Paradise, a changing

Grid of Time and Space and Matter like the Universe.