Paula Lantz and Rebecca Harris

Baby Dishes


pin prick of winter rain

rounds the corners of each windowpane

gone each morning only to return

he surprises her every evening

and she will clean them every now and again

bottles and spoons palmed tenderly, one by one

she finds them there in the bottom cabinet

making no nonsense of her baby wishes

every color, every embellishment

a rainbow swept out and away

the tiny dish with the soft suction

the big tray for all those fingered joys

the slotted valve on the tippy cup

all customized for a pint-sized person

a generation that would not be

she thinks no one knows of her tender afternoons

her affected affirmations

but the riot of plastic and melamine stands out

and the sleet saw it all