I begin with the dinner fork and the salad fork
 but the forks multiply, the fish fork and this?
 an oyster fork, are we having oysters?
 you didn’t tell me we were having oysters,
 the oyster fork which is the only fork 
 to be placed at the right side of the plate
 says a voice in the wings, my Girl Scout                                                                  
 Leader Mrs. Winklevoss explaining
 the Setting of the Table, where to place the fruit fork
 to go with the Samoas, Tagalongs and Savannah Smiles
 and the dessert fork and snail fork
 and in this dream everyone—
 which means the two of us and someone coming—
 gets a prosciutto fork and an olive fork
 and a larger salad fork and spoon
 to serve the lettuce and now the serving fork
 and the roast pork fork. I am unrolling them
 from their flannel pockets, the long line
 of forks, where to put all these utensils
 handed down to us—asparagus fork,
 barbecue fork, beef and berry fork,
 the carving fork, is the someone-coming a giant?
 in one fairy tale a giant’s fat cures the prince, 
 the French-fry fork known in Germany 
 as the Pommesgabel fork and the currywurst fork, 
 and the crab fork, the fondu fork
 which has a pleasing alliteration.
 I haven’t seen one of those since the 60’s,
 the relish fork and the pickle fork,
 which you tell me with your usual impatience,
 are not at all alike, how can I be so dumb?
 And the knork which is a knife and a fork,
 and the spork which is a spoon and a fork
 well loved by Dr. Spock and Dr. Zeuss,
 and the sucket fork with tines at one end
 and a spoon at the other and now the chork 
 which can be broken in half to form chopsticks,
 or kept whole for the manually challenged,
 and finally my granny fork which actually is my Granny’s Fork, 
 the one my mother said I must have
 before you came along and laid me flat.