Glass

I have in front of me a box of light.

Fragile pieces of glass

like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

They take you into a world beyond

the natural.

Father and son

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka

reconstructed flowers, invertebrates

and microscopic heliozoa

for the world to see.

Advertised as Zierde für elegante Zimmer,

they would provide museums and

the nature-loving rich with

sand dollars, Ophiothrix serrata, at 3 Thaler,

feathered star fish, Comatula hamata, at

2 Thaler and 15 Neugroschen

and catalogues full of splendour.

Just look at their bluebubble, the fearsome caravel,

Physalia physalis, a prism of blues

yellows greens reds

clarity.

Was there ever so much light in

apple blossom, sea anemones

glass?