Lunch with Dad

In a parallel universe

If I’d begged, pleaded or cajoled

Lunch with dad

Might have taken place in

A five-star Michelin-rated

Rotating restaurant or at

Bistro on the avenue

Where we’d surely dine on

Foie gras, filet mignon or snapper

Or to the local deli

for the triple home run deli-cacy of

BagelLoxCreamCheese

Or perhaps to the trendiest

Vegetarian hangout for a

Detox smoothie,

Grass-fed, free-range, barn-raised eggs

And uber-organic edibles

But instead, as it happens

With no arm-twisting at all,

We settled on the simplest dish of all

Hot dogs from a place

That (quite FRANKLY) was subpar,

(And not only because I haven’t actually eaten a chien chaud for ages)

But then,

To quench our thirst, and

To stifle any lingering pangs,

We completely, unhesitatingly and unilaterally

Agreed that there was only one

Place to go to top it all off

And that (quite FRANKLY, though we passed on the hot dogs)

Was – and Is – the One and Only OJ’s (aka Orange Julep).