Planet Chat

To my brother, Patrick

well, yes. the planet and naming it "ours" idea is an idea
like whoever gets there first
it becomes there.
the grammar in that is terrible.
like columbus, arriving
and calling this place "new york"
thus making it new york

even though it's clearly not new york, but some place
to someone else. “and how we have named planets
that are billions of light years away from us
even though we will probably never reach them”
not even knowing what are planets are made of
or what kind of music they like there.
but I was also thinking about this idea as an educator...
people learn the english that I teach them. Interesting!
so if I decide to describe something a certain way, they're going to believe that.
it's a bit scary, when you think about it.