poem about the lost cosmonauts
Memories of Lost Cosmonauts
In a small russian village,
on the outskirts of vladivostock,
an old woman stares at the night sky
thinking
wow, there's a lot of junk in space
though she can only see the slowly fading stars
she knows that the sky is littered with
dead satellites
castaway bolts from a thousand spaceships
and somewhere
two skeletons in a capsule
holding eachother tightly
circling the globe perpetually
waiting to fall into the atmosphere
and burn dust to dust
She was there at the launch
clandestinely
she had known the girl in college
and had lusted after and slept with the boy
one dark and quiet winter's night
however, now she stood anonymously
almost a mile away, after bribing the guard
nobody was supposed to know about this launch
the sky had become a funeral pyre for many a cosmonaut
all forgotten,
though their parents, friends and lovers still wept
and as she watched the rocket launching,
and then disappearing,
she turned away and went home to listen to the radio
Hours she waited
Two days then slowly passed
but no word
the secret police showed up on her doorstep
confiscating and burning the small keepsakes she had
love letters, jewelry, that empty tin of caviar
they all shared, laughing,
on the night the power went out
now there was nothing left
but her memories
and memories fade
Every night she still stands there
looking at the stars
hoping for new constellations
but none appear
because nobody, not even space itself
remembers the lost cosmonauts
In a small russian village,
on the outskirts of vladivostock,
an old woman stares at the night sky
thinking
wow, there's a lot of junk in space
though she can only see the slowly fading stars
she knows that the sky is littered with
dead satellites
castaway bolts from a thousand spaceships
and somewhere
two skeletons in a capsule
holding eachother tightly
circling the globe perpetually
waiting to fall into the atmosphere
and burn dust to dust
She was there at the launch
clandestinely
she had known the girl in college
and had lusted after and slept with the boy
one dark and quiet winter's night
however, now she stood anonymously
almost a mile away, after bribing the guard
nobody was supposed to know about this launch
the sky had become a funeral pyre for many a cosmonaut
all forgotten,
though their parents, friends and lovers still wept
and as she watched the rocket launching,
and then disappearing,
she turned away and went home to listen to the radio
Hours she waited
Two days then slowly passed
but no word
the secret police showed up on her doorstep
confiscating and burning the small keepsakes she had
love letters, jewelry, that empty tin of caviar
they all shared, laughing,
on the night the power went out
now there was nothing left
but her memories
and memories fade
Every night she still stands there
looking at the stars
hoping for new constellations
but none appear
because nobody, not even space itself
remembers the lost cosmonauts