
Pluto: A Poem
Categories: Literature & the Arts Science & Cosmology
To wrap up our tour of the solar system, we wanted to conclude with a poem by Maggie Dietz from Richard Grossinger’s Pluto. Though the beloved dward planet has been reclassified, it is far from forgotten!
Tags: Poetry AstronomyPluto
Maggie Dietz
Don’t feel small. We all have
been demoted. Go on beingmoon or rock or orb, buoyant
and distant, smallest craft ballat Vanevenhoven’s Hardware
spray-painted purple or day-gloworange for a child’s elliptical vision
of fish line, cardboard and foam.No spacecraft has touched you,
no flesh met the luster of yourheavenly body. Little cold one, blow
your horn. No matter what you areplanet, and something other than
planet, ancient but not “classical,”the controversy over what to call you
light-hours from your ears. On Earthwe tend to nurture the diminutive,
root for the diminished. Noneof your neighbors knows your name.
Nothing has changed. If Charon’snot your moon, who cares? She
remains unmoved, your companion.