From the collection published in 2021, And Don’t Come Back.
Soon This Experience Will Be Your Memory
Let’s go back
to that day we both remember –
change our clothes for dinner
clink glasses over top-grade steaks
crème brulée for dessert and is it more polite
when finished
to leave the damask napkin on the chair
or beside the plate? The most pressing question
before us and neither of us know the answer
Still don’t but now What a time that was, we say
as we sit around our kitchen table
eating breakfast for dinner
the baby tossing waffle bites on the floor
the cat curling through the table legs
licking the syrup off the floor
5/8/20
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Ha! Those days of elegant dining really do feel like a distant memory when we are at the coal face of parenting. Many times over the years I have reminded myself that the early childhood years are so fleeting that some day those parenting challenges will be the distant memories.
I find now I am not interested in eating out much, now that I have no obstacles to it!
Same! The pandemic taught me that what I missed about dining out was not having to please umpteen people with one meal I had to cook and not having to clean up all the cooking mess. Treating ourselves to take out food scratches that same itch without me having to leave the house. We have eaten out for a couple of special celebratory meals but otherwise I am happy to just have takeout to give me a break.
It seems like a lovely memory.
Nice memory and I do love a good crème brulée!
Me too. Yum.
It isn’t the food (usually) that is most memorable – it is the company!