Epergne
Spare—it's anything but,
but comes from the French
for spare, as in save;
it saves space. But the French
in their perversity call it surtout.
On reading a poem on looking up
this word, I looked it up, but not
in Webster's Unabridged.
Google brought me etymology
and what is more, images:
lovely Seussian structures.
Far from ensorcell or ensoul
its neighbors here
are chandelier, compote, and goblet.
One specimen in particular
with fluted edges, dangling crystals
caught my eye and I cared nothing
for the outrageous cost;
I put it on my wish list
at notorious Neiman Marcus,
in fact created a wish list
just to wish for this.
Wishing is free
and saves even more space.
— Cleveland Wall
©2011 Cleveland Wall
Reprinted by the Philadelphia Inquirer with author's permission.
Cleveland Wall is a poet, mail artist, and founding member of thepoetry performance group FOUR. Her work has appeared in New Purlieu Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Möbius magazine, and elsewhere. She is an editor and sometime visiting poet with Poetry Writers in the Schools. She lives in Bethlehem.