Forgotten Planet

I ask my daughter to name the planets. "Venus ...Mars ...and Plunis!" she says. When I was six or seven my father woke me in the middle of the night. We went down to the playground and lay on our backs on the concrete looking up for the meteors the tv said would shower. I don't remember any meteors. I remember my back pressed to the planet Earth, my father's bulk like gravity next to me, the occasional rumble from his throat, the apartment buildings dark-windowed, the sky close enough to poke with my finger. Now, knowledge erodes wonder. The niggling voce reminds me that the sun does shine on the dark side of the moon. My daughter's ignorance is my bliss. Through her eyes I spy like a voyeur. I travel in a rocket ship to the planet Plunis. On Plunis I no longer long for the past. On Plunis there are actual surprises. On Plunis I am happy.

—Doug Dorph