Matthew Francis

Mealybug Nymphs, Gossamer

after Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1665)   A warm wall, heavy leaves, hard green grapes     and a cluster of berries         spun out of cobweb.   They were packed with brown roe, or, later,     an anarchy of hatchlings,         scattering crawlers   scarce larger than the

Gnats

after Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1665) Their world is a glass of rainwater. They move up and down through the clearness,    swallowing their way, or hang by their tails from the surface: tiny transparent caterpillars with their bristled segments of body,    horned trophies of head. The glass holds nothing that I can see, but they find