Looking for Laika

eight years following Orion
keeping pace with Apollo
seven months to go
looking for a ghost in space
i decided to go looking a long time back
she’d been lost for 80 years,
picked off the streets to die miles from the world
the only ghost in space
i know where she went
after she died
to play with all the other dogs
chasing Lepus for Orion
barking and howling with the other stars
even at the speed of light it takes me over eight years to arrive
but i hear her bark
so i take out the bag
prepared for the trip
biscuits
ball
brush
come here girl
let’s go play
хорошая собака Лайка

I've fallen so hard, I can't remember what the world outside looks like. The walls are too steep to climb out. The only way to go forward now is with a shovel. It's a good thing that I like digging.