Hey friends,
We are almost through the summer, and I’ve been reflecting a lot. And one of the things I can’t believe I haven’t done is share this poem with you!
The following poem is one of my FAVORITE POEMS EVER. I heard the poet, Fatimah Asghar, perform this poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival back in 2016. It was right after a painful break-up and the whole experience, the reading, the words, really hit me in the feels.
Here she is. “Pluto Shits on the Universe” by Fatimah Asghar.
Pluto Shits on the Universe
On February 7, 1979, Pluto crossed over Neptune’s orbit and became the eighth planet from the sun for twenty years. A study in 1988 determined that Pluto’s path of orbit could never be accurately predicted. Labeled as “chaotic,” Pluto was later discredited from planet status in 2006.
Today, I broke your solar system. Oops.
My bad. Your graph said I was supposed
to make a nice little loop around the sun.
Naw.
I chaos like a motherfucker. Ain’t no one can
chart me. All the other planets, they think
I’m annoying. They think I’m an escaped
moon, running free.
Fuck your moon. Fuck your solar system.
Fuck your time. Your year? Your year ain’t
shit but a day to me. I could spend your
whole year turning the winds in my bed. Thinking
about rings and how Jupiter should just pussy
on up and marry me by now. Your day?
That’s an asswipe. A sniffle. Your whole day
is barely the start of my sunset.
My name means hell, bitch. I am hell, bitch. All the cold
you have yet to feel. Chaos like a motherfucker.
And you tried to order me. Called me ninth.
Somewhere in the mess of graphs and math and compass
you tried to make me follow rules. Rules? Fuck your
rules. Neptune, that bitch slow. And I deserve all the sun
I can get, and all the blue-gold sky I want around me.
It is February 7th, 1979 and my skin is more
copper than any sky will ever be. More metal.
Neptune is bitch-sobbing in my rearview,
and I got my running shoes on and all this sky that’s all mine.
Fuck your order. Fuck your time. I realigned the cosmos.
I chaosed all the hell you have yet to feel. Now all your kids
in the classrooms, they confused. All their clocks:
wrong. They don’t even know what the fuck to do.
They gotta memorize new songs and shit. And the other
planets, I fucked their orbits. I shook the sky. Chaos like
a motherfucker.
It is February 7th, 1979. The sky is blue-gold:
the freedom of possibility.
Today, I broke your solar system. Oops. My bad.
Source: Poetry (April 2015)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/58056/pluto-shits-on-the-universe
Why I Love This Poem
What is there not to love really?
But if I had to choose, I love the personification of Pluto, this planet that was a planet and then was done wrong. I love her power. Her imagery. Her chaos.
Like I said, I heard this poem for the first time after a painful break up, and I loved Pluto’s unapologetic power in this poem, especially during a time when I felt powerless. I wanted some of her power for myself.
I love that she will not be defined by the other planets. She is her own entity, and she can’t be fenced in and SHE WON’T apologize for it.
I think we should all be like that, apologetically ourselves. We need more of that in the world.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for now, friends.
What are your favorite poems? Share with me in the comments.
Until next time. Wishing you a week of being unapologetically yourself.
Robyn Neilsen 