The Dog and the Orbit (Laika)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
You were a stray
on a street
in Moscow
and the man
who picked you up
picked you
because strays
already know
how to survive
in conditions
they did not choose
and the rocket
was a condition
you did not choose
and you were
a three-year-old
mutt
who weighed
thirteen pounds
and you had
already survived
worse
than a rocket
on a street
in Moscow
in November.

[Verse 2]
The scientists
loved you.
That is
the part
no one
says
out loud —
the scientists
who built
the capsule
and fitted
the harness
and calibrated
the oxygen
loved you
the way
a surgeon
loves
the patient
she is
about to
open
knowing
the operation
is not
survivable
and the hypothalamus
of a man
who pets a dog
he is about
to send
to die
is doing
two things
at the same time
and cannot
stop
doing either.

[Chorus]
You went up
on November third
nineteen fifty-seven
and the orbit
held
and the transmitter
sent your heartbeat
back to the room
full of men
who loved you
and your heartbeat
was fast
and then
your heartbeat
was faster
and then
the cabin
got too warm
because the heat shield
was not
finished
because Khrushchev
wanted the launch
in time
for the anniversary
and the heat shield
was not
invited
to the anniversary.

[Outro]
One of the scientists
said
forty years later
*we did not learn
enough
from this mission
to justify
the death
of the dog*
and the sentence
is the most honest
sentence
anyone
in the space program
has ever said
out loud.

You orbited
for five months
after you died
and came down
as light
over the Caribbean
in April
and the ocean
did not know
your name
and I do
and it was Laika
and it meant
*barker*
and you
are the only
subject
on this album
who never knew
what was
happening to her
and that
is the part
I cannot
stop
thinking about.

---