" The Tenth Planet

There was this buoyant blue balloon
That felt a little spare.
It had been given life on Earth,
Was puffed with human air.

It bumped into a telescope
And glanced at outer space;
It thought it saw some more balloons
Each with a friendly face.

It gazed on all the planets
That lay beyond the moon:
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune.

And further out was Pluto.
A cold and distant sphere;
That had to be the target,
The lonliest by far.

So the balloon floated upwards,
Sneaked through the Earth's thick clouds;
Saw stars above get closer
And, down below, the crowds.

The Earth itself got smaller,
A mottled ball of blue;
It too was balloon-like
From a certain point of view.

Out, out into the darkness
The balloon kept to its course.
It kept away from comets
Speeding among the stars.

Mars was red and arid,
Jupiter was gas,
Saturn's rings were brilliant,
Uranus a great mass.

Neptune was a freezeup
And - furthest out of all -
Pluto, the ninth planet,
A revolving snowball.

Past Pluto was a dark spot
Where a planet ought to be
The balloon took its position
To orbit endlessly.

Back on Earth astronomers
Studied evidence of a new, 10th planet
And called it Providence.

They say they'll send a spaceprobe
To Providence quite soon;
They'll either find some sign of life
Or burst their own balloon.

Alan Bold "

― John Foster