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 'til 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
through 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.