“Don’t play with your food” 😎 Image Description: a dark green background with white text that reads “Ordering from the Kids Menu” I hope I never take myself so seriously / that I stop thinking it’s funny to pretend that one of those giant pretzel rods / is a cigar / I hope I never forget to put Bugles (and olives) on the tips of each of my fingers / or to eat a Nutty Buddy one layer at a time / or to carefully pull each strand of string cheese until it’s gone / I hope I keep suggesting to ‘Lady and the Tramp’ a long spaghetti noodle until someone says yes / I hope I never stop squirting Reddi-wip directly into my mouth / spearing a single macaroni noodle onto each tine of my fork / and attempting to eat popcorn by throwing it straight into the air / I hope I always fill each tiny square of my waffle to the brim with syrup / and blow bubbles in my chocolate milk / and assemble my two eggs and bacon into a breakfast-plate-smiley-face / and pretend the banana is an important phone call I must take right this minute / I hope when I’m 83 years old I find myself using a cookie cutter to turn my sandwiches into fun shapes / Even though I’m no longer young / Even though they tried all my life to convince me that / play / was something I ought to outgrow.