Laika
Posted: 14 Feb 2020, 07:41
V2:
Laika
Don't do this, I whimpered.
He held me squirming
in his beefy hands.
“Congrats, comrade,
you’re now a cosmonaut.”
For weeks I trained, circling
in dizzying orbits
around a centrifuge's
roaring axis,
my pounding heart
furiously rattling its cage.
I kept barking out my concerns
but the engineers were deaf
from years of testing
failed rockets.
Finally the glorious day
of Sputnik 2's launch
arrived. "Bon voyage!"
some fool shouted into a mic
spilling vodka on a panel
in the control room.
As the spacecraft rose
the ground fell away
like a boxcar unleashed
from a speeding train.
Floating in a flight harness,
the first canine cosmonaut,
I pressed against a port,
the earth shimmering below
like a bone dropped
into a creek.
V1:
Laika, First Dog in Space
Don't do this, I whimpered.
He held me squirming
in his beefy hands.
“Congrats, comrade,
you’re now a cosmonaut.”
For weeks I trained, circling
in dizzying orbits
around a centrifuge's
roaring axis,
my heart shaking
like a furiously rattled cage.
I kept barking out my concerns
but the engineers were deaf
from years of testing
failed rockets.
Finally the glorious day
of Sputnik 2's launch
arrived. "Bon voyage!"
some fool shouted into a mic
spilling vodka on a panel
in the control room.
As the spacecraft rose
the ground fell away
like a boxcar uncoupled
from a speeding train.
Floating in a flight harness
I pressed against a port,
the earth shimmering below
like a bone dropped
into a creek.
Laika
Don't do this, I whimpered.
He held me squirming
in his beefy hands.
“Congrats, comrade,
you’re now a cosmonaut.”
For weeks I trained, circling
in dizzying orbits
around a centrifuge's
roaring axis,
my pounding heart
furiously rattling its cage.
I kept barking out my concerns
but the engineers were deaf
from years of testing
failed rockets.
Finally the glorious day
of Sputnik 2's launch
arrived. "Bon voyage!"
some fool shouted into a mic
spilling vodka on a panel
in the control room.
As the spacecraft rose
the ground fell away
like a boxcar unleashed
from a speeding train.
Floating in a flight harness,
the first canine cosmonaut,
I pressed against a port,
the earth shimmering below
like a bone dropped
into a creek.
V1:
Laika, First Dog in Space
Don't do this, I whimpered.
He held me squirming
in his beefy hands.
“Congrats, comrade,
you’re now a cosmonaut.”
For weeks I trained, circling
in dizzying orbits
around a centrifuge's
roaring axis,
my heart shaking
like a furiously rattled cage.
I kept barking out my concerns
but the engineers were deaf
from years of testing
failed rockets.
Finally the glorious day
of Sputnik 2's launch
arrived. "Bon voyage!"
some fool shouted into a mic
spilling vodka on a panel
in the control room.
As the spacecraft rose
the ground fell away
like a boxcar uncoupled
from a speeding train.
Floating in a flight harness
I pressed against a port,
the earth shimmering below
like a bone dropped
into a creek.