It was in the Cold War world
before the Berlin Wall,
the Iron Curtain dividing
with no prospect of its fall
They sent him into space
on a wing and a prayer,
first recorded human
to go up there.
Atop a giant firework,
sophisticated, but at heart
just a giant firework
with lots of working parts.
It's now fifty years ago
but I remember so well
and against all odds
he survived to tell;
thrown up there
just to win a race
he was the first to see
this Earth from space.
And seven years later
in an explosive flash
ironically he died
in a fighter plane crash.
They work together now,
a complete co operation
between those once
cold warring nations.
And fifty years on
brave people still go there
still riding giant fireworks
on a wing and a prayer.
The Cold War is long finished,
Curtain and Wall both fell
but now religious dogmas split
offering other visions of hell.
