Between, time
freezes, the perfect
points of the un-astered stars
unmoving in their
fixed array: a field
through which
he streaks at many, many
times the speed
of light―through which he crawls, an unseen
ant across a desert.
He knew
the change and crush
of great acceleration, the scream
of engines giving way, sky’s blue
deepening to black―and then
than black, and the
unblinking stars in it.
He races
through the narrow
sharp edged spaces
of the ship, looks up
to see the beams and conduits
of a passage loom
and fade behind him. Plows
through ship stores, consuming
double rations, ravenous.
