Pitiful Pluto

               Pitiful Pluto

We used to think that Pluto was the far,

Far, farthest planet of them all.  Today

We know from telescopes that distant star

And distant star have planets as their prey

That cannot ever find escape.  These spheres,

These exoplanets might become star food

If solar orbs expand with laughing fleers

And roast and char and eat them all unchewed.

The telescopes have now degraded clamped

Old Pluto.  Scientists now say that it

Is not a planet, meaner now and cramped,

So far away that it is hardly lit.

  Besides, poor Pluto rates as one mere speck,

    The forty trillionth exoplanet fleck.

Phillip Whidden