Planetary Retrodictions

CANTO THE SEVENTH

Alchemic furnace blazing white

with swarms of orbs that go your way

You shine the light, you hide the night

O central sphere, O star of day.

O iron skillet, how you fry!

For lack of heat you need not fear;

You’re bleached and baked and hot and dry;

Your day is longer than your year.

Though Mother’s twin, she’s very dead;

no speck of life on her can dwell;

a greenhouse hot as molten lead;

You call that love? I call it Hell.

O lovely one of brown and green

and blue and white; a shiny pearl;

at last I’ve seen where I have been;

my home, my love, my life, my world.

Your mountain climbs beyond your sky,

O ruddy little brother.

Some look at you with farmer’s eye;

Some hope you host Another.

The greatest ever wandering one

with orbs around him in a ring

and bands and storms upon him spun;

Not quite a star, but yes, a king.

O jeweled giant, so sublime!

A spectacle to astound to!

The angels blessed you with this sign;

They parked their haloes around you.

O gassy giant, why so blue?

On you I’d choke and buckle;

You rotate sideways, all askew;

Your name makes children chuckle.

O gassy twin of deeper blue

You roll upright, I see;

You sport a spot of darkish hue;

Your tune is from the sea.

With ferry-man partner, whirling go

Your sun’s a star, your plains are new

Your water’s rock, your air is snow

Dear distant death-dwarf, I love you.

Comment by Quark:

Perhaps this is about the poet’s community.

The first is the King;

The second is his overworked cook;

The third is a fallen woman;

The fourth is the poet’s wife;

The fifth is the poet’s scheming younger brother;

The sixth is a baron;

The seventh is his ornamented duchess;

The eighth is a constipated knight;

The ninth is his sailor brother;

The tenth is a mortician.

Comment by Hellerstein:

This is about the solar system: respectively the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.