Mother loved her bone china.
She went out of the way to insure
that her first husband bought a complete
set for her, service for twelve
never mind she never had a table
that could seat more than eight
and then only then if you crowded
mismatched chairs together.
She gave it to me after her second
marriage finally dissolved, not only
because I was the only child who knew,
however briefly, the husband who
bought it for her, who adopted me
with her, but because her other two
children by her second husband
never had homes in which to keep it.
I passed it on to my son as it had
languished in the breakfront
for a decade, and I suspect he
will never have a table capable
of seating more than eight
and only then if he and his wife
crowd mismatched chairs together.