By Jet, age 14
“Poyekhali!”
“I see Earth. It is so beautiful.”
My breath glitches at the thought
Of what others will never see:
Planets revolving under the eye of gravity
Stars imploding light years ago
Falling from darkness – they’re wishes, cupped in my trembling palms
This sun rising; a new dawn for us all …
I exist only in this void.
“I could have gone on flying through space forever.”
My presence becoming an enigma,
empty radio silence … static.
Submitting myself to the sun, stars and supernovas
Surrendering to spatial voids. Their silence as yet unheard
“Looking at Earth from afar,
you realise it is too small for conflict.”
“He’s probably human.”
My reality-starved neurons,
engaging rustily.
This world has let me breach its boundaries:
And live,
set down safely in a farmer’s field:
Oh humble place, where the first cosmonaut may tread;
Life after touchdown.
Quotations by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin during the Vostok 1 spaceflight (11th April 1961).
“Poyekhali!” translates to “Let’s go!”
“He’s probably human.” Rita Nurskanova said this on seeing Yuri Gagarin, the first person to return from space.
He had landed in her grandmother’s potato field