Grandmother’s Silverware by Yvona Fast

Washing dishes 
at my kitchen sink – 
among them 
three knives, 
two forks, 
and two spoons 
remain 
from the prize-winning 
Joseph Fraget dinnerware – 
silver-plated copper 
made in the 1850s 
on Warsaw’s Elektoralna Street.

Mother recalls 
burying it in Aunt Genia’s garden 
to keep it safe from the Nazis, 
then digging up the prized set in 1945.
In 1957, It traveled from Warsaw to Israel, 
And in 1964, to America. 

Today, 
in my Adirondack mountain home,
I give thanks for silverware, 
for tasty, healthy food,
for my aging, frail mother, 
my grandmother, 
their stories, 
their lives, 
their hopes 
and their dreams.