Experimental Observation of the Trapped Rainbow

It is the gift of the intellect
that we are not otherwise to use in examining the mysteries
to know that it is not enough to observe when the sun breaks the light
into its arc of colors
to listen to the last spatters of the rain against the glass
to feel the cool humid sigh of the wind;

trap the rainbow between layers of gold
and we know the trick of the light
is a circle of green and red

Set free, the coat of the leprechaun glows
and his pockets are full of coin

_____

The title is from the report Experimental Observation of the Trapped Rainbow, a physics experiment by V.N. Smolyaninova, I.I. Smolyaninov, A.V. Kildishev, and V. M. Shalaev, the abstract of which I read around 2009.