Long time pa-a-a-sing…

Where have all the teaspoons gone, long time agooooo?

I don’t get it. I live alone. I wash my own teaspoons. I never take them out of the house. And yet, somehow, I have fewer teaspoons than I should and I swear the forks are multiplying.  They do seem to get their tines entangled when I’m not looking but I didn’t realize that stainless steel could reproduce.

And where do those teaspoons get to, do you think? Are they off cavorting with some dish around the moon?

I know I haven’t thrown them out, I even bought extras. So why are there only five in my drawer, laughing at me?

Apparently this happens all the time in workplaces, but that’s understandable. The same guy who leaves his dirty cup in the sink for someone else to rinse has a stockpile of the spoons in his desk drawer, where he’s swept them in a fit of tidiness.

Maybe it’s just that teaspoons are ephemeral, like spider webs and downy bird feathers, the smile of a baby or the breath of a clarinet. Maybe they aren’t steel, after all, but created by some gossamer steel simulator that dissolves if not watched. Maybe they exist in alternate universes and just pop by to visit.

All I know is that I wish my errant teaspoons would wend their way back to this space and time. I miss them.