{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.