December 10: For Your Consideration, Christmas Poetry Reading, “In Defense of Pluto”

I never feel completely comfortable asking people to do something for me.  I think it has to do with the way that I was brought up.  My mother and father taught me about the need for self-sufficiency.  Hard work was the way to get ahead in the world.  My dad worked hard for over fifty years as a plumber and furnace man.  Early days.  Late nights.  Emergency phone calls sometimes at 2 a.m.

I also get why some actors have a hard time campaigning around Oscar time.  It’s all about tooting your own horn, and that’s strange for artists.  Some are really good at it.  Others are not.  Some take out ads in newspapers with titles like “For Your Consideration . . . “  It’s weird.

However, I am nominated for an honor, and I will try to play my part in the selection process.  The way I see it, poetry wins, no matter what. 

So, for your consideration . . .

In Defense of Pluto

by:  Martin Achatz

At Solar System Elementary, Pluto got bullied
Off the playground by bigger planets,
Despite the policy of zero tolerance
Instated a few years ago when Moon
Showed up one morning, eclipsed
Sun with a fist of shadow so hard
She had to go to the nurse's office
For treatment of a bruised solar flare.
The kindergartners in Ms. Copernicus' class
Saw the whole Pluto incident, shook
In their little comet shoes as Neptune,
Uranus, Jupiter caught Pluto by the fence,
Smeared him with cosmic shit left behind
By Mr. Bigbang's schnauzer, Eris,
Chanted over and over "dwarf, dwarf, dwarf"
Until Pluto broke orbit, fled home
In a vacuum.  Principal Galileo released
A statement:  "Milky Way School District
Will not tolerate any form of bullying,
In outer space or cyberspace.  All planets
Will be safe, dwarf, terrestrial, or gaseous,
Regardless of color, shape, orbital orientation."
Pluto remained at home, didn't return
To school.  Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter
Were suspended pending further inquiry.
Rallies, parades, candlelight vigils were held
Across the universe, calling for tolerance,
Acceptance, peace among all celestial bodies.

PLEASE VOTE FOR SAINT MARTY FOR POET LAUREATE OF THE U. P. AT THE LINK BELOW:

 VOTE FOR ME (MARTIN ACHATZ) FOR POET LAUREATE OF THE U. P.