Gravy Boat - May 12 2022

 

Gravy Boat

May 12 2022

My mother had the “good dishes”

and the everyday.

If a guest was deemed worthy,

they would be lovingly set

on the festive table

beside the polished silver

crystal glasses

fancy platters,

bracketed

by sumptuous napkins

that matched the tablecloth.

There was even a gravy boat;

a questionable name, I'd say

for an unseaworthy vessel

that, instead of afloat on its liquid

is up to the gunnels in it.

But today

our dishes are barely everyday;

a few orphaned mugs

chipped plates

mismatched cutlery.

The elaborate hutch,

which was flush with fine china

and in a place of honour in the formal dining room,

was sold online.

The dishes are in boxes

in a basement closet,

the schmaltzy tchotchkes

gathering dust down there.

And the gravy boat

has either sailed off somewhere

or has sunk to the bottom;

we still love gravy

but no one knows how to make it

and the take-out comes with its own.

I was reading a piece about how the collectables of past generations accumulate in the basements of the younger ones. As a minimalist, who prefers throwing things out over buying stuff, this prospects is deeply alarming! And I certainly count on not burdening anyone with unwanted material possessions.

Anyway, there was a passing mention in the piece of a “gravy boat”, and the name immediately struck me as not only charmingly illogical, but highly old-fashioned in this era of fast food and casual dining.