Today's poem is by Kenneth Pobo

Mars Changing Her Name
       

I got named after a war god.
People should call themselves
war gods as they specialize
in war. I'm sanguine,
my two moons,
Phobos and Deimos,
like a trowel and a spade,
dig the garden of space.

I get angry. How would you
like an asteroid to bop you on
the ass? I'd prefer
a gender neutral name
like Chris. Planet Chris.
Someone you could call
when a storm leaps out
and you're scared.

Gossip from Uranus
says people want to colonize me.
I'd rather not be
a dinner table
with strangers deciding how
to turn me into cash. That might

make me a war god after all,
freezing out these visitors
who think I'm property,
who have signed deeds for hearts.

Copyright © 2025 Kenneth Pobo All rights reserved
from At the Window, Silence
Fernwood Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission