How to Observe the Horsehead Nebula

Do not replay the same dark horse,
the same perspective others dealt.

Aim Hubble's wide field camera
near Alnitak, Orion's Belt:

the old made new in infrared,
the horse's head now dusky rose

a primadonna girt with stars
preening in picture-perfect pose.

Or shut your eyes and journey back
to Boston, eighteen eighty-eight

where Williamina Fleming
peers at a photographic plate—

tired, perhaps, or missing Scotland,
dreaming thoughts above her station,

abandoned wife, single mother—
first to see that indentation.