Star Trek Subtext
an all day Star Trek marathon
the original series on DVD
weird space plants
funky 60’s retro-futurist sets
Kirk Spock Bones Sulu
(Sulu who knew you were
the real queen of outer space)
we had nachos salsa
bags of sea salt-n-pepper chips
Hawaiian pizza fried chicken
diet coke real dr pepper
a 90 inch plasma TV
to see Trek in all its never to fade glory
to make it more fun
as each episode started
we did a soprano unearthly dance
every time Scotty said
‘I’m giving it everything we got captain’
we’d eat chips as fast as we could
when Uhura said
‘we are experiencing interference’
we saw who could burp the loudest
every time Shat took off or tore his shirt
we removed an article of our own
(Strip Trek)
every time the fate of a culture
was decided by a kiss from Shat
we made moony eyes at each other
until someone said ‘phasers on stun’
each time human emotions
were a puzzle
we asked deep personal questions like
‘who has the bigger dick
Checkov or that guy
with his face painted black and white?’
when any alien said
‘what is this thing you earth people call kissing’
we gave each other alien tongue baths
every time Spock said ‘illogical’
we did the Vulcan grind meld
by the time the marathon was over
it didn’t matter
that neither of us really liked Star Trek
we’ll never forget this Star Date One
trees in the morning mist
This is a rare, for me, piece about popular culture. I set out deliberately to write something that was relatable, funny, sexy and fun to perform. This sort of pop culture poetry cut through gender and sexuality at the same time. I love performing it – attempting various voices for the characters.
trans memorial tree in the lobby at 519
The structure is based on drinking games I’ve heard some people play for various TV shows – take a shot when so-and-so does one of their trade mark repeated actions. Repeated actions that one loses awareness of until you actually take real note of. Must save the writers time – what do we do now – take off his shirt? Star Trek has lots of these sorts of consistent moments.
tree felled by wind
I made the drinking game not an eating game, that eventually becomes more than eating food. One of the keys, to me, was to get the right flow of events, sot hat things built up to actions that were increasingly fun and sexual without become explicit.
Alien tongue bath anyone?
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