Tiny Moons of Neptune and Uranus in Humans’ Unimagined Years-long Hours
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The news is that “new tiny moons” have been
Discovered near far giant planets made
Of gas, past Saturn’s herd of moons. Within
The orbits of these satellites arrayed
Beyond imagination until now, gas spheres
Alone together felt these beans’ slight pull.
One takes a path of twenty-seven years
To go around its planet like a skull.
So it is nearer from its planet’s view,
But still quite distant if it takes that long
To make its transit round that Neptune’s blue
Immensity as part of its moon throng.
The nearness or the far remove of moons
Is seen in fourteen-year-long afternoons.
~ Phillip Whidden