Ode to a Colander

I’m sure you are tired of being asked
if you are related to the Chinese Checkers board
also punched with six-pointed stars
and I was going to say, but can you blame us
with so few other items with your design aside from the night sky
yet now at sunrise perhaps that lace pattern of oak leaves
allowing for the orange rays to come through
resembles you as well, and speaking of lace
maybe Rembrandt’s signature collars are colander-like
since he painted them not by drawing white lines on black
but by filling white in with black
leaving only the lace
as you leave only the berries or macaroni
and how you hold a hatful of potatoes as easily—
a sort of “allow me” when we need to rinse things off—
and now looking at the hummingbird feeder
whose red plastic flower blossoms hold yellow mesh discs
in their center for the beak to peek through to the nectar
and that is like you as well
and now I see the large squared laminated netting
around the deck of this raised house
so that children don’t fall through
and I begin to wonder what isn’t you
and if, in fact, you are holding us all up
a globe and Atlas combined
until we fall through calendar’s time
too fine for your powers.