"Real" Food

Playing pretend with my niece
pantomiming restaurant particulars
I, the waiter, take the orders
of her and my sister
and I am so vividly recalled
to my child-self I shiver
for thirty years before
as the family sat at dinner
I would disappear from the table
and return with cloth draped forearm
the waiter
refilling waters and inquiring after vittles
the resonance is so striking
I misinterpret my niece's request for real food
which I eventually bring from the kitchen
and she rejects it as she meant real as in tangible
as opposed to imagined, her assorted toy delectables
not a head of broccoli, the most mundane of vegetables.

I wonder what children's fascination is with culinary protocol
it's generational resurgence in practiced play seems nigh on inevitable.