Laika

And all the dim companions of

The old white dwarf

Watch him throwing sugar

On an old blackboard

He says: You can't stay in the classroom

Till the end of God

Now Laika's in the backseat

Of a lunokhod

She was the first to leave home

In a very long time

But vanished with her tail on fire

She was born under a foundry

In it's black air duct

Then cast adrift as though

She were a speck of dust

Snubbed by walls of mantle

And their bolted core

Then fired into a canyon

Of polite applause

Threw half a pound of sugar

On an old blackboard

And this grain is our Sun

High on a field of maize

Blazing like a hawk

High on it's stilty gaze

The wind blows and the corn leans

Laying Laika bare

She don't see it coming

And she's got nowhere

One day they'll build her statue

Put it in the yard

To show to all the children

And the palace guard

And one day all you children

Will be white dwarves too

You'll cave under yourselves

And become cruel, cruel, cruel