Disclaimer: Star Trek is the property of Paramount/Viacom. This poem is the property of and is copyright (c) 1976 by Juanita Salicrup. Originally published in Stardate Unknown #2, Gerry Downes, editor.

Christine's Challenge

Juanita Salicrup

Oh, that you and I could, for once,

Have done with barriers --

Be straight with one another --

Unfold and share our fears!

Yet, so carefully, have we erected them --

These walls of crystal tight around us.

Minueting through our lives

We see across the gulf between

Yet cannot cease the dance.

Oh, don't you see -- ?

We are prisoners of our own benighted making!

We have made our fortresses so strong

That, though we've needs and loneliness and love,

The giving is at once prevented and foresworn.

There is no door that could be opened ...

No key to fit a lock ...

To end this dance --

Bring down these walls --

A charge of fire, it seems, must needs be set.

En garde, Spock!