Orbiting so many people
You have no light of your own to give them
You are rock, nothing more
So you reflect the sun to those who cannot see it

You give people light
Because you love this earth and its creatures
And when you realized you had nothing of your own to give them
You showed them the light of day at night
By using yourself as a mirror

Showing them
Showing us all
That light can be found within everybody
You just have to know where to look

Blinding light up in the sky
Keeping a solar system breathing
With your pain
Constantly burning so hot
Constantly shining so bright
Because you have to

Forcing yourself to burn
Eventually, you will burn out
And leave us all in the darkness and the cold
You ward them off for us
The cold, vast, emptiness of space
Is briefly illuminated
In your attempt
To save the planets, moons, asteroids
People
That orbit you

They depend on you, oh Sun
The weight of an entire solar system on your back
And still, you walk forward
Clothing us all in light

So far away
No longer even allowed to call yourself a planet
Does it hurt?
To be cast out, like your namesake was cast from Olympus
To the underworld below

Too small to even be allowed to keep your title
Your power stripped
And for what?
Classifications, science, progress
Progress is important
But did they have to take away your status, Pluto?

Do you still bear resentment for all they did?
Do you still harbor a grudge against us?
You can say yes, my sweet Pluto
I will not blame you
And even if this is the last time
Anyone ever calls you a planet
My Pluto, my Pluto
You are still a planet in my eyes

Who?
Who was it, all those years ago
That saw two blue planets, almost identical in size
And named one the sea, and one the sky

The sea, condensed into a sphere
But you are not made of sea
You are made of water, no salt present
All that is pure about the sea
Without the sting

Pure and good
A planet so far away we cannot even fathom its distance
How far away are we
From the kindness of Neptune
Perhaps it is equal to the distance between us

So much dust orbits you
Rings of rock fly around your mass
Space dust, all collected
Into rings of dust and ice and rock

So many moons fly around your mass
Clinging to the orbit that keeps them from breaking up
Your size pales in comparison to the planet before you
But your visible rings make you unique

So as you float around the sun
Dragging ice and dust and rock with you
Spare a fleeting thought for those closer to the sun
Whose days are shorter
Whose years are shorter
Whose time is shorter
You will be here for much longer than all of us
So, when we are gone, spare a thought for us now and then
Please, Saturn, it is all I ask

Freezing planet of ice
Cold, so cold
An unremarkable planet in comparison
To Jupiter’s size
To Earth's life
To Saturn’s rings

Still, not entirely boring
Your days are longer than even Jupiters
Your size is bigger than Earth
Your blue beauty and small rings more delicate than Saturn

Blue, swirling, cold
That is what you are
So much bluer than the sky you were named for
Years so long almost all will not see a full one
Years so long the melody of you will sound different to every generation
As we all try to understand your nature
And all fail

Giant, awesome planet
Made of no rock, no water, just gas
Pulling everything in reach towards it
With so much force some end up crushed

We cannot go near you
For fear of being pulled into you and dying
Maybe you just want someone to talk to
Lonely planet in the sky

Humans are so fragile, aren’t they?
You can’t even let one get close to you without breaking them
Lonely planet, forever lonely, forever apart

Red planet up in the sky
Someone looked at you and thought of blood
That's how you gained this name

Why did they think of blood?
And not of apples, freshly picked
Or a rose, beautifully delicate
But even an apple has pips
And even a rose has thorns
So maybe, either way, your name would have held pain

Violence has haunted us for generations and generations
I guess, Mars, what you represent has become the only constant in human life
A terrible constant
But reliable nonetheless
Humans seek constants
Maybe that is why you were named Mars

Mother, mother you kept us safe
You nurtured us and helped us survive
You gave up yourself to help us
And watched as we destroyed all you gave

You would never see us hurt, mother
You still keep us safe even now
Even though you breathe through poisoned lungs
And your heart beats war cries

You still care for us
How is that so?
Can you teach us to care for you this way
And for each other?

Poison
You are flooded with poison
Some claim so is your namesake
The goddess of love

It is ironic, don’t you think?
That a planet we can never walk on
Without suits and equipment and protection
Is named after love
Venus, you don’t love us humans, do you?

And as the poison fills your air
I wonder, oh Venus, if you even know it hurts us
Maybe you just tried to create an environment that humans could live in
After all, we are not all that pretty ourselves

Oh warm planet, can you tell me?
What it feels like to be burning all the time
What it feels like to be closer to the big light in the sky than we will ever be
What it feels like

Oh small planet, do you like it?
The light must be so bright where you are
The heat so scorching
The days so short

Oh mercury, do you know why you were named?
After the god of messengers
And of thieves
What did you steal to earn that name, small planet?
What could you have possibly taken from us?