Magnification

Close up, one eye is pinned against the lens of a freshly sweat-slickened microscope, while the other eye winks; equal in effort of support, they strain to penetrate the thickened surfaces of initial green, finally revealing a sturdy complex of slack-lipped pores. Each industrial stomata gaping as a gateway for gas exchange, guarded by pairs of protective cells poised to regulate the flow of air, one after the other. Swoosh of greater magnification exposes the guardians, shaped like common kidney beans, ridges and grooves of pigments circling around like bubbles of starch, migratory as morning mist. Inside this plastid factory of synthesis, even greener dots of color fill the organelles, powerhouses of observable DNA machinery relentlessly persisting, regardless of the shifting scale of perspective up Close.