Wedding silver decades worn
Scattered in church kitchens
Thrown away by kids unknown
Life in beautiful trenches

Sunday lunches
Easter brunches
Birthday bunches
Hospitality honed and sown

Down four forks, five spoons
knives all here but one
salad pitchforks holding too
Wedding set undone

Breakfast scrambles
Dinner rambles
Dessert brambles
Family looms and blooms

Same pattern from my memory
The brand was Reed & Barton
Confident in my scrutiny
I ordered six new cartons

Massachusetts company
Blinded to the subtlety
Pervasive naivety 
Silverware new but askew

It was a pattern slightly different
Mandolin is precious, rare
French Country is abundant
The variation caught my glare

Change resisted
Heart twisted
Mind shifted
Seasons grieved and received

Home state and warmer weather
College city replaced quaint town
An apartment we hope’s not forever
My days still have kids all around

Grown children now brothers, sisters
A grandson is pure delight
New church a balm for the blisters
A marriage that transcends the night

Family vacations in Colorado
Instead of the coast of Maine
Central Market replaces farmer’s market
A whole former life to explain

Palpable patterns decades worn
Scrutable adjustments still weigh 
Let French Country era be born
Rigid reluctance be allayed

Mandolin remains
Malleability gained
Silverware reframes
Surrender spurned and learned