Correspondences

Antique spooner arrives

Boxed and wound

In bubble wrap--

I peel away blistered plastic,

A stemmed vessel emerges:

Raised decoration of strawberries

Adorn one curve of goblet,

Blackberries grace adjacent side.

I lift glass to sunlight,

Look through form--

Clear designs layer

Over one another

Like companion plants

In my garden--

Where tall brambles protect

Low-lying red berries,

Heart shaped fruits

Insulate rubus roots,

And each are kin

To the rose--

Laura Stickney 2024

Notes:

Spooner-- 19th century glassware

Rubus--A genus of flowering plants

that includes blackberries

photograph of antique Dalzell & Gilmore

glass spooner, c. 1880, by Laura Stickney