ODE TO LAIKA

Through dark primeval forests, once you led,

Watch kept on fledgling hunts in ancient days,

To safely pave our way with padded tracks,

To sense, avoid attacks and locate prey,

protect, obey, seek out, chase and retrieve,

Our wants and needs, our questions, fears and hopes,

embedded in your coat, wild sticky burrs.

When we would search for knowledge. You went first.

 

Millenia ahead, dark skies of night,

Still frightened us, and so we called once more,

Your loyalty before, to show the way,

To navigate our dangers, blaze our trails,

To selflessly avail us in our quests,

Our voyages be blessed and sanctified,

by angels asked to fly forth in our stead,

as messengers to heaven.  You went first.

 

The first to live in glory, first to die,

To orbit in the skies above our heads,

As you re-entered, in a stream of flame,

How many gazed that night upon your path,

and gasped or laughed, a shooting star beheld,

How many as you fell, felt wondrous bliss,

Or made a wish, or shared a lover's kiss,

What hopes were gently pinned upon your fur,

wild sticky burs, that night, when you went first.

 

You lead us still, all innocence and dreams,

all selfish petty schemes, and righteous climbs,

all charity and crime, all lies and truths,

all base abuse and soothing, healing hands,

All human plans and progress we may make,

upon this earthly plain, or out beyond,

will each have gone where you first pointed us-

our beast of trust, the best of us, our friend.

the one we always send. I now attest,

Lest ever we forget, that you went first.


 (From 'Tranquility Base', a poetry reading and art show from 2019, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing).