Blasted into outer space
I am plutoed
7.5 billion kilo-metres away
destination—desolation
exiled
with no oxygen
Wrestling to draw breath
I open my mouth
but all I take in
is the planet’s all-consuming
lifelessness
My bones tremble
shatter
as my body is forced
into the form
I am transformed
I have become it
Pluto.
A small mass of icy gas
you can walk through me
and not notice
I’ll allow it
only as this planet
Now, my heart
Tombaugh Regio
is nitrogen ice
the largest bright feature
protecting me from
encroaching darkness
My new-born existence
is questioned, denied
and eventually
revitalized
I return as a dwarf
shaped by my experience
Finally, I exhale
expel the barren Galactic object from my mouth
return to human form
an inhabitant of the planet, moments ago, I was
Free to leave
I have new-found exuberance and agility
I hop planets
sprint laps around Saturn’s giant rings
join the endless search for life on Mars
withstand the polar extremes in surface temperature on Mercury
I revisit Pluto too
it’s in my nature
Whilst there
I see a spacecraft fly by
a part of the growing population
fleeting though it is
objects of a belt
fastened tightly
through the intergalactic loop
Royal Rose 