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Meadows of the Motherland, |
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your farmer's ashes sown |
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by fallen stars, |
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bear mankind another strand |
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of unearthly dreamings grown |
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from earthly scars. |
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"Killers all!" he cried, |
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flames clawing at his throat |
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through melted fore. |
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Hands jut from stygian tide |
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upon the ferryman's boat, |
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dashed on the shore. |
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Shrieks of the atmosphere |
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deafened the engineer, |
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vessel now commandeered. |
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by twisted chute. |
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Thoughts to his warnings spurned, |
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promised a safe return, |
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Brezhnev's plan unconcerned |
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by wild fears |
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voiced by a mute. |
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Call |
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to grieving wife, |
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family left below. |
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Governemt strife: |
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father in |
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thrall. |
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His daughter's grin |
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while plaing in the snow. |
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Solar panels |
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undeployed. |
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Radio channels, |
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lost in void. |
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Foretold to fail, |
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rode on a stallion pale. |
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Orbit 19., |
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ordered home. |
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Blue and the green, |
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roads to Rome. |
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Oreintation |
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from the sun, |
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ion propulsion |
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manually run. |
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Halt |
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the second launch, |
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thunder from the squall. |
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Future blood staunched, |
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rain's blessed |
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fault: |
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three crewmen spared |
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ther companion's fall. |
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The calm of space. |
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Aurora Borealis, |
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fire of spirits passed, |
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to cleanse of human malice |
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man's rise into the vast. |
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Burn, burn the ties that bind |
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mortals to the terrence rind. |
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Yearn, yearn to part the skies, |
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upon an ark of sullen eyes. |
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He cursed the dust |
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that bore him |
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[screaming] |
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bastard child abandoned to the clouds. |
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"Compost for the Kremlin Wall., |
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fed to blooms on Lenin's grave... |
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Marvel as we heroes crawl |
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to our deaths so bravel!" |
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said Yuri to solemn friend. |
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"Soyuz will be a martur's end." |
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"You cannot die in my stead," |
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he replied. "You bring the Moon." |
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He turned, hiding tears he'd shed, |
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and walked to his tomb. |
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Gagarin unsheathed his cross, |
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and prayed to sway a brother's loss. |
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This too shall pass. |
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In bygone meadows of the Motherland |
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a laborer boy studies planes gone by. |
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The unearthly dreamings of a framhand |
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to pluck the planets from a fertile sky. |