Thanksgiving is done. Preparing for Christmas I’m going through and sorting out dishes and the detritus of thanksgiving. I pile leftover plastic cutlery and notice a lack of forks and a plethora of spoons.

Spoons everywhere. Even more than knives.  But the forks, they are few … I am the fork.  Used up, moved from plate to plate, turkey, dressing and then dessert.  Not yet done, a second
plate, sandwich with cranberry sauce and gravy, scooped up between my tines, some sustenance lost, but not all.

Dinner is done, some forks find their final home in the trash bin, others make their way to the sink to be washed and reused.  I sit in the drawer, my plastic sides scarred, one tine chipped, but still serviceable … until I finally join my companions in arms … a new life.