Nebulous Cave Poem by Harley White

A cavernous nebula cloaks the sky
in Cepheus' constellation on high
called Sharpless one five five or Caldwell nine
more commonly ‘Cave', emission design,

diffuse in its dim caliginous mien
as if hiding secrets behind a screen,
or maybe a portal to passageway
through cosmic dimensional overlay.

With radius of thirty-five light years,
its ebon evokes Mankind's primal fears
of lightlessness causing a vision lack
and thus to be lost in abyssal black.

Its Cave nickname came about for curved arc
which looks a lot like a cavern mouth dark,
unless seen in infrared, shedding light
upon what's perceived with usual sight.

This nebula brings to mind Plato's famed
allegory as a dialogue framed,
in which captives chained to wall of a cave
view shadows projected into enclave

from in back, as reality discerned,
so these beings believe that they have learned
at least to trust what their eyes recognize…
Nonetheless, how little they realize!