The Kids’ Table
No china or crystal
No extra forks
No fancy linen
Salty black olives from a can,
one for each finger and thumb
Fluffy pillowed dinner rolls
dripping with butter
Oh, and the ravioli!
I was twenty-three
before I tasted turkey
on Thanksgiving,
indulged in chatter and antipasti.
Still don’t like mashed potatoes and gravy.
Why not shrimp tacos,
like other grateful days–
as I look longingly
from the grownups table.
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
November 29, 2022
Giving thanks continues with the latest and final POMELO BOOKS anthology
THINGS WE WEAR!
To help kids celebrate all that we wear,
26 poets worked their magic with each letter of the alphabet.
Here’s a preview of my poem “Earmuffs” set to video!
You’ve seen this before, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving,
I want to once again lift up the gift of community and poetry
created by the team of Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell!
Our Poetry Friday host this week is Catherine at Reading to the Core.Â
Patricia Franz is a kidlit writer and published poet. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Lots of nostalgia in your poem, Patricia! For me, it was the opposite – I didn’t have the pasta part of Thanksgiving until I married into an Italian family in my twenties. But I do remember one Thanksgiving when it was just my husband, my son, and I eating ravioli and meatlballs. Love what you did with your Earmuffs poem!
It’s always fun when I find someone who understands the raviolis-at-thanksgiving thing!
Your earmuffs poem is charming with a surprise ending. Indeed, why should snowman have earmuffs? I had a kids table for my kids when we had neighbors over one year at thanksgiving, but just served the usual boring food. However, I married into an Italian family and experienced the pleasure of lasagna and antipasto many times at holidays and too much food to even begin to eat.
Wouldn’t it be fun to let the kids plan the menu?
Oh, that is CUTE! Reminds me of (is inspired by?) this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-wnQKRHTs, which in turn of course reminds me of (is inspired by?) the quote about how “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Congrats on another published poem!
OMG! The video song is hilarious. Kids love the preposterous!
We had so many at my ‘growing up’ Thanksgivings, there was no kids’ table, just the pick of all kinds of food. I love the idea of looking longingly from the adult POV. And the earmuffs poem is a delight, Patricia! Congratulations for it.
Thanks Linda. Yes, I think the older I get, the more I appreciate the kids table!
Your “Earmuffs” poem is adorable and I love the graphic you created for it, charming!
If my mom had to split us kids up which didn’t happen that often, she made sure we had all the finery and same food as the adult table had–nice POV poem, thanks for all!
Thanks, Michelle. For sure, we kids were quite impressed with ourselves when we finally got to drink from real glassware (even if we still didn’t like the food)!
LOL! If there was anything I hated as a kid it was to be put at the kid’s table. But, you make it sound so fun. I love the details of comparison here…those tacos do sound delicious! A wonderful poem.
But who could imagine tacos for Thanksgiving, right? Some day I’m going to let my grandkids plan the menu!
I can’t relate to ravioli at Thanksgiving, or even the kids’ table (there was always room for all of our small extended family around the big table), but those black olives on the fingers and the rolls dripping butter (Pillsbury crescent rolls in our house) — so many memories!!
I’m looking forward to many more with grandkids at the little kids’ table now!
Oh I love this! When we moved to Thailand, we had tacos for our first Thanksgiving with our Cuban friends. It was a memorable and delicious day!
In the Philippines, we dined on pig for Thanksgiving!
So many good memories in the Thanksgiving poem. I love black olives. Congrats on the ear muff poems,
Thank you, Jone. Looking forward to seeing grandkids with olives atop their fingers in the future!
Love the poem, Patricia. The surprise ending made me laugh, as did the olives on each finger. I did that, too, as a kid. One year I made BBQ ribs for Thanksgiving, in addition to turkey, and everyone was thrilled.
Yum! Ribs would be a big hit in our house!
My grandparent’s house was so small it didn’t have a dining room, and if you were on the wrong side of the table, you had to crawl under it to get to the bathroom! Your earmuff poem is adorable! Congratulations!
What a fun memory, Catherine!
Can’t wait for us to talk about how I am gonna use this book in my class!
whoop! whoop!
“Oh, the ravioli!” There are so many people who don’t like turkey. My husband’s family always had lasagna at Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing your nostalgia for the kids’ table.
Thanksgiving AND Christmas ravioli! 🙂
I loved “The Kids Table” when I heard you read it, and love it here. Since our family now consists of adults—sibs, cousins, adult nieces & nephews, and son & daughter in law (grandchild in the near future), our Thanksgiving table resembled the kids table in years before…Fun!
Thank you, Carol. That evening with Georgia and Rebecca and our poet friends was wonderful!