Lenticular Twist Poem by Harley White

Lenticular galaxy NGC
four seven five three is a twisted disk,
or so it appears in the imagery,
with filament paths where dreamers might frisk.

It's laced with tracery of dusty lanes
for starry-eyed poets to romp and play
far off from our so-called earthly domains
about sixty million light-years away.

In picture nearly edge on it is seen
with spiral arms that are quite ill-defined
through the Hubble's resolving power keen
with elliptical shape that's shown reclined.

To be the result of merger ‘tis thought
more than a billion light-years in the past
with nearby dwarf galaxy when ‘twas caught
so that its formation was then recast.

From this event, dusty pathways accrued
around the galactic nucleus where
reside in the Virgo assemblage brood
these debris trails with their intricate air.

‘Twas spotted by William Herschel first in
seventeen eighty-four, thus it's stated
torn apart and distorted in a spin
until this clustered form was created,

or in such way it's been hypothesized
as here on the ground our theories we sift,
while spinning out schemes ever improvised
whose aptness so often misses the drift.