After Reading Niall Williams

and polishing grandmother's silver

Christening Spoons with Forks & Butter Knife Photo by Laura Hansen

The Licking Spoon
by Laura L. Hansen

Used exclusively for honey or treacle,
this tiny deep-bowled spoon
was popular for decades
in the northern reaches 
of the country
where on cold and soggy days
a little extra boost of sugar
was just the thing
to get one through the day
or to soothe a gravelly chest.
A dip into some sticky sweet syrup
and a slow lift to the oyster pale lips
of a suffering child or the pallid cheek
of a great-great aunt and, for a moment,
a healthy flush would be restored.
Or sometimes the lady of the house,
hard done in by a day of mangling
the wash and stripping bedding down,
might opt to open the little jar
of market jam bright with berries
picked in the rain and simmered
down to sparkling jewels
as the leaves fell to the ground
the previous fall and she'd reach
for the little silver licking spoon
fresh from a rinse in the big basin,
and dip it in, get just that little bit
of extra strength to carry the dried
and folded linens back up 
the flights of stairs and, maybe even,
like the round-faced cherub 
on the spoon's handle, sit a spell
with hands on cheeks flushed 
with thoughts of divinity, her
wings softly fluttering. 

Note: I woke up with the idea of a licking spoon in my head and that it had provenance - a whole complex story that needed be told - a place in history. The “licking spoon” is fictional as is the “far north” its history is set in in this poem, but it does bear a resemblance to one of the spoons in the collection I photographed for this Substack post. On looking up licking spoon, I came up with two main references. The first, of course, the tradition and its probable negative health effects of licking the excess off the wooden stirring spoon when baking. Or worse, sharing it around, for everyone to have a taste of the raw un-coooked eggy whatever. (A tradition I honor and recommend!) This was followed by tales of celebrity chefs caught licking a tasting spoon then dipping it back in the pot. (The horror!). The second major reference when I googled licking spoon was regards to licking a spoon before taking liquid medicine as a way to dull the (usually awful) taste.

Well, that was all after the poem was written. I blame (or bless) the whole experience on having read Niall Williams’ This is Happiness just before retiring to bed. If you’ve read it, or his work in general, you will know that he takes off on long detail-filled sentences that leave the reader breathless and tangibly ensconced in the realities of another time and place, a place uniquely his own.

Also, if you look closely, (I just noticed this) you can see a reflection of me in my pale blue peasant blouse leaning over the spoons. I think I look good in silver!