{secondhand kitchenware}

Rosemarie Fettig

The box in the closet is getting harder to close:

four place settings

[lunch and dinner plates, tall and short glasses]

pots

[one quart, two quart, three quart]

a complete set of flatware

[six forks, six knives, six teaspoons, six soup spoons, five iced-tea spoons]

{I don’t think there ever was a sixth}


We’ve been adding to it for three years now,

letting it sit in the bag corner of that

ten-square-foot closet

{if it wasn’t for the inventory in January,

I’d have forgotten half of it}


It’s heavy, thanks to the block of just-sharp-enough

steak knives and two solid glass baking pans;

probably going to need two people to carry it down 

the stairs and out the front door

{weeks of skipping arm day are catching up}


There’s even a set of four wine glasses brand-new in 

their box and five rocks glasses {odd numbers again}

and yes, two shot glasses from the 70’s 

with these funny little flared rims

and a butter dish.