Twelve knives for the new year

Christian Century, April 3, 2007 by Jane Zwart

Twelve knives for the new year

   Last Sunday my grandma laughed at the memory
   of a clumsy silverware thief: one day she came home
   to a slamming screen door and a trail of knives
   that began in the living room
   and petered out in the yard.
   She said they were not precious.
   But my dad whispered.
   He remembered how she came in with them, all in one hand.
   In a delicate furious bouquet.