Cosmonaut X

(Failure of the 1st Soviet manned-mission)

No one asks to be born,
To waste that celestial eternity
And notch the endless chain
With scars of careworn time;
All the days spent there,
Man scorned immortal thoughts;
All the days spent there,
Believed in life and the final truth.

Now as bright Venus rises again
And supplants sombre Pluto's decline,
One remembers not that fatal day;
Tomorrow is equally now and forever's
Endless yesterdays.

All the days spent there,
Seeking that which could not keep;
All that was loved and held dear
Have passed into stranger's hands;
All that beyond the hearth light,
Which was feared and hated so,
Is heritage now forever.

How clear the light is
When seen from darkness;
How beautiful is space
Where all the cosmos is seen
In its proper ordering;
To turn with the spinning earth
To the music of the sun-
Equal partners now in orbit's plan;
An eternal dusten shower
On that smiling planet
Falls, and masks with celestial light,
The devouring jaws of earth.