Animalcules

by Frederick Pollack

After Leeuwenhoek’s death, his techniques became known.

The glass was not ground but melted and stretched

into a lens. Some miles and languages

north, a merchant’s son repeated

the Dutchman’s findings. Staring all night

into his homemade microscope, drawing

the creatures, he reminded himself not

to dragonize or serpentize but draw

what he saw. (During the week and worse

on Sundays, his pious father cursed him

for yawning and inattention.) What especially

engaged the youth were the absent or doubtful

eyes. One night he thought, They’re invisible

to our naked eye but that doesn’t mean

we are to them. Perhaps they see us

very well. It would be the opposite

of our supposed situation vis-à-vis ...

(On pain of disinheritance the father

ordered him to destroy

the microscope and focus on business.)