No. IV · Permanent collection

Moth of Woven Glass

Material

Impossible

Provenance

Caught in the window of a glassblower’s workshop, mid-shatter.

Condition

Certain of itself

It is drawn to darkness, not to light.

Its wings were woven, thread by molten thread, by no one. Entomologists refuse to classify it; glassmakers refuse to believe it. The moth is drawn not to light but to darkness, which is why it stays. Under the spotlight it holds perfectly still, casting a lace of shadow finer than any lens can record. Twice a year it flexes its wings. The sound, witnesses say, is a wine glass deciding not to break.