Bone China
My dear ones soon to marry, if you’re able
Do plan good dishes for your dining-table:
Selecting china for your registry
Requires that you do not choose foolishly.
Bone china’s beauty and utility
Embody strength, and not fragility.
As Noritake’s teacup, eggshell-thin
Appears too delicate to hold therein
Hot beverage—know that bone and kaolin
And feldspar-granite make the porcelain
As strong as iron, translucent to the eye
A veritable garden to espy.
The touch, a pleasure, smooth unto the finger;
Clear resonance, upon the sense to linger.
So, pretty stoneware’s soon to chip and craze;
You must be careful to protect the glaze,
But china made of bone can stay unsheathed
And to your sons and daughters be bequeathed.
Mary Gardner is a poet living in Florida.
