When You Are Light Years from Anywhere

Study technical manuals,
wish they were poetry;
pop tiny pills
that pack the entire
vitamin chain,
dream of Porterhouse steak
and fine California Chablis
to wash it down;
squeeze into this
Commander's strait-jacket chair
and think a porch swing
on a crisp October afternoon;
listen to the voice of Houston,
imagine it were sweeter;
play-act with the instrument panel,
like it's a childhood game;
parlay the solitude
into a long ago sweetheart,
the dark into a field at night;
gaze down at the stars and sigh ...
if only I were looking up.