The Sun Warns Pluto

On 19th March 1915, Pluto was sighted, and photographed, for the first time.


My dark child, my pock-marked changeling,
my waif encased in ice, they’ve spotted you
through their glass eyes, they’ve caught
the smear of your shadow on their lens –
my coldest and last, my echo-ball
who knows me by memory not by light,
they’ve spied you through the night and their voices
are raised – my tiny pulse, my almost-debris,
who pulls on the coat-tails of stars,
hide your face, little death, hide your face.