I wanted to be a Cosmonaut

because Yuri Gagarin is a more melodious name

than John Glenn, because the Soviet

artists depicted outer space like poetry

rather than like science. 

The first woman in space,

also a Cosmonaut, 

coincidentally romantically named

Valentina. She radioed down 

from her solo flight: “It is I, Seagull! Everything is fine. 

I see the horizon; it’s a sky blue with a dark strip.”