Dreaming Again

Dreaming again,
Walking along a beach somewhere in the South.
Now, unencumbered by the body that never worked anyway,
My dreams seem more real than the reality I once knew
When my body was once alive.

They buried me…it…
The lifeless legs and arms,
The head that bobbed and drooled, the incontinent bowel,
All of it, in some cemetery on Earth
And even said some words over it.

Sometimes I dream
That I can see the ship that I command
And feel her cold structures as she speeds through space.
I look out the windows that are not there
See the stars passing by

The servers that
Are hardwired into my brain,
Now tell me a course adjustment is in order
And I alert my two bodiless companions that it is time.
Do they dream as well?

How many years
Have passed…since the ship left,
Sailing for the stars, at near the speed of light, never to return.
Two hundred? More? Not important.
It has no relevance.

I sense now
That my two companions are awake
As they input electromagnetic data,
From their unique brains into the guidance systems
And I execute.

Systems tell me
That thrusters have adjusted the course.
In my mind’s eye…the only eye I now possess
I see the ship making it’s slight turn toward our objective
Toward the end.

They told me
That I would live long, but not forever,
And that my function would become irrelevant
Once we entered the system
That we steered for

More are following
And in the centuries that are after now,
Humans with bodies will come to these outreaches
And remember me, the first human mind to conquer
And record.

For I can record.
Somewhere, I don't remember when
My observations are being taken down
And transmitted back to earth
For the others that follow.

The next few ships
That come will be piloted by
Beings like me…and my companions.
And they, armed with our data and information
Will add to it.