Glass Flowers

Do you think Hephaestus
Ever thought
To make Aphrodite
Flowers
From glass and steel?

Meticulous work
To bend wire to will
To make it something it’s not

To clamp and bend and hold
Hoping for steady hands
Wrapping wire
Round wire
Again
And again.

Made by hand
And just as fragile is the real thing
I give you these
Glass flowers

I spend my hours
With pliers in hand
Wrapping silver wire around itself
Precisely
For without some reinforcement
The wire is prone to snapping.

Twisting wire into loop after loop
Trying to perfect
My process
To make them stronger than stems
Sturdy as I can.

Some petals spin
Some petals won’t
All different color combos
Reds and pinks
Picked in particular

To make pretty combinations
Last time I tried
To give you flowers
You told me you couldn’t
For hiding flowers is a difficult task
And they damage quick and easily
And though glass and bead
Can break with ease
Theses flowers should be easier
To hide.

They will never grow in length
Nor will they die
But they will catch the light
With hand painted petals
Dipped and sealed
Myself
So they may adorn your dresser or shelves
Built to last
Much like us
Made with care
With time.

And though they’ll never grow in length
In number
I’d delight
In crafting a garden for you
My dearest
One that’ll last for life.

Paden Horton, ’25