“I’ve been told
that people in the army
do more by 7:00 am
than I do
in an entire day
But if I wake
at 6:59 am
and turn to you
to trace the outline of your lips
with mine
I will have done enough
and killed no one
in the process.”
― ‘6:59 am’ by Shane Koyczan
Complement this beautiful poem with Manto’s heart-breaking story that tugs beyond borders and revisit Spielberg’s hymn to the horses of world war.
I’ve been reading a lot on space and time lately. The more I learn of things dark and cosmic, the further I diverge from the sense of scale as we earthlings use in common parlance.
Did you know that our galaxy and a few more are trapped in this local group that only makes up 0.00000000001 per cent of the observable universe and because of the nature of the expanding universe, we’ll never be able to leave it. Even at the speed of light?
And I always end up thinking of Laika.
How with each measured breath she’d have puffed life away in that closed cavity.
Think also of the fractional time-lapse in which this Russian man rescued a little kitten on a busy highway.
There’s so much that I would never know of the grand scheme of things but you, I’d always love.
I often think of Laika too. I remember reading somewhere that the scientists who made the decision said they still regretted it.
Yes you are right. Oleg Gazenko, who worked closely with Laika during her training, regretted sending her to space – “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.”