We didn’t learn enough to justify

the killing of a good dog. Hitting

what horizon might have closed the deal?

Laika was given a window, the earth’s first 

frame, her mission to look back in longing

at circles of silent faces, blank branched streets. 

People also ask: Did Laika suffer?

What’s Laika doing now? Did someone call

her limonchik, little curly lemon 

bug? In space, can silence turn to matter?

Did her young blood curdle with ozone?

Did a slick of cold enter the core

of her eyeteeth? Did her eye become

the earth, her nostrils dazzle into atmosphere?