The Bowl

                                       A glazed bowl sat in prominence.
                                       Hairline cracks from firing visible.
                                       Pewter gray upon clay beneath,
                                       its inner bottom circled with ivy;
                                       on the outer, the potter’s mark,
                                       a raven holding a thorny black rose.

                                       Its dwelling was a crowded room
                                       with tables shrouded by blue and gray cloth.
                                       Granny Smiths overflowed the bowl,
                                       delighting the arriving visitors.
                                       Everybody seemed to enjoy
                                       the gray glazed clay bowl’s presents of pleasure.

                                       The bowl, a fixture of acclaim,
                                       furnished the room for better than three years.
                                       Its presents suppositional,
                                       an expectation of the frequenters.
                                       Two years of overflowing chips,
                                       supplanted by the luscious Granny Smiths,

                                       transformed, the bowl seemed happier
                                       filled with its offering of green apples.
                                       The increased weight had an impact,
                                       cracks began to line its interior.
                                       One day the bowl gave out and split,
                                       spilling its contents across the table.

                                       Some gatherers looked on in shock
                                       as apples found home in another bowl.
                                       Hurried hands attempted repair;
                                       the endeavor to mend the fractured failed.
                                       Into the trash went shattered clay,
                                       few remember the old glazed over gray.