Galactic Bird Poem by Harley White

There's a bird aloft ‘mongst astral array,
too distant to hear any songs it sings,
although ESO shows in vivid display

hummingbird colors and albatross wings,
the latter the size of our Milky Way
extending through space in tidal tail flings.

Or could it be Tinker Bell holding sway
while she sprinkles celestial fairy dust
in a dazzling neverland star ballet?

Nowadays large telescopes are a must
so as such depictions to manifest,
when, urged by sidereal wanderlust,

astronomers take up a willing quest
for stunning galactic images new
and stellary queries to be addressed.

The triple galactic merger in view
composes the pixie or bird we see,
a surprising disclosure through and through

of this scarce formation revealed to be
interacting system in triad team,
heart, body, and head making up the three.

A legion of light-years remote, this scheme,
six hundred fifty million in effect,
ere being observed with optics supreme

which saw through the clouds with vision correct,
had been thought of as a galactic pair
but was a trio, in every respect.

The third one atop this bird-like affair,
clearly identified later by far,
while frenziedly forging stars in its lair

not calmly as its two companions are,
is smallest, though infrared light source main,
a further aspect considered bizarre.

In the future this shape will not pertain
to avian creature or fancied sprite,
still that loss may be great creation's gain,

for separate galaxies will unite,
where hitherto unheard-of worlds might lie,
with single elliptic coming to light.

Yea, the bird or pixie away must fly
as to merging forces the three succumb,
midst the vast dramatic pageant on high,

in accord with the cosmic rule of thumb,
of which we're a tiny part of the sum…