Museum Glass Show

January 18, 1995

Striped light through striped glass

bars the face of the child

with rows of color from the scalloped plates;

red, yellow, clear, blue

all tint his cheek and brow;

his shoulders bathe in it as he looks up

through shapes of glass overhead,

shapes like creatures of the sea

but huge, all glass, all formed for light

to glorify, in turn make glad

the viewers - purpose enough

for any shape, for any construction,

quixotic and bizarre, precise and clean.

In one alcove something like a vase

but all flamboyant with spiraled handles

disports itself for the sake of doing it,

its own flower. All these shapes are flowers.