Iridescence
"...all that vulgar beauty of iridescence...", "Roosters", by Elizabeth Bishop
"It is used in nature
to recognize organisms
of the same species, choose mates,
confuse and evade predators --
a useful adaptation --
a shimmer of glittering and
changeable colors --
the phenomenon of certain surfaces
that appear to gradually change color
as the angle of view or angle of illumination changes --
(ex: soap bubbles, feathers, butterfly wings,
seashell nacre, as well as certain minerals) --
an inventive optical trick."
Any difference between pearlescent and iridescent?
Pearlescent objects have a luster resembling
that of mother-of-pearl. Iridescent objects
have a lustrous, rainbow-like play of colors
caused by differential refraction of light waves --
as in "the object seems to change color
as you shift your perspective" -- a shimmer
of glittering and changeable colors --
an "inventive optical trick" indeed!
Could there not be some among us, who --
perhaps even if for their own purposes,
are almost -- almost -- almost truly iridescent?
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