Russia’s Salyut 4 Space Station
- Russia’s Salyut 4 Space Station
February 2, 1977
For over nine months, Salyut 4 grew sick in space before she fell
on the day I was born—a cold white flash in the Southern sky.
When the doctor pulled me, leaking fluids, from the wreckage,
I didn’t cry. My pressurized face, veiled in blood, re-formed
in the atmosphere. Her body broke apart. A downcast nurse
salvaged my pipes with a slap—welcometo the world—on my tail.
For years, no one spoke to me of the fall of the frail vessel. [End Page 33]
Gary Dop lives with his wife and three daughters in Minneapolis. He received a Special Mention in the 2011 Pushcart Prize Anthology, his essays have aired on public radio’s All Things Considered, and his poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Agni, New Letters, Rattle, and North American Review, among others.
