The Mistress of the Red Revolt ...

... lies deep in putsch,
putsch in blue sneakers,
and is poisoning the water
from another place.
The water is clear
but cold enough
to freeze the organs,
slow your growth
and kill the unprotected.

I am lost in the curve,
a Soyuz Ogive,
and the east has dropped
below me
to the plains of Baikonour
where Komarov
has lost his mistress
to the air-force jitter.

They want for a doctor here
to warm the guts
of Cosmonauts.
The mistress flies
out of the arms
of the chief designer,
standing on nothing
and spinning
from ship to ship.