Artist conception of Pluto, Charon, and Nix as seen from HydraNight stands
near the beginning of creation
and orbits an icy dwarf planet
at the edge of the solar system.

Invisible for centuries,
another new moon
in a lunar population explosion

As eyes peer further
into chameleon darkness,
         satellites multiply
planetary definitions evolve
and new data streams out of chaos.

We begin to name the things
that existed before us,
classifications for mysteries
hidden from ancestral astronomers

leaving celestial objects
we haven't yet dreamed of
to the centuries beyond us.

Copyright © 2009, Deborah P Kolodji

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/ G. Bacon (STScI)

Deborah P Kolodji is the president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and a member of the Haiku Society of America. She edits Amaze: The Cinquain Journal and Dwarf Stars, and moderates two local poetry workshops. She has published over 850 poems and four chapbooks of poetry. Her work can be found at Strange Horizons, Modern Haiku, Dreams and Nightmares, poeticdiversity, the Heron's Nest, bottle rockets, Tales of the Talisman, THEMA, Pearl, and many other places.