Sushi Roll Sideways

This is my first try at a poem after being inspired by a fun moment watching my son Leon eating his sushi roll sideways. There was an innocence about it.

Sushi Roll Sideways
Leon eating his sushi roll side ways at a casual family outing to a food court

Ready to eat? Take a bite
out of the side of a sushi
roll just because. You know it’ll
get more food into your belly that way.
A bite is a bite, no matter
which direction you take.
A sideways bite is something
an adult would never do. Because
you’re hungry,
you’re a child who is
yet to feel the pressures
of society watching.
The food ends up in the same
place, but we forget. Adults
have thought up rules,
thought up norms,
for almost everything.
Keep taking bites of your
sushi sideways, for one day
you’ll succumb to being an adult
and eat it regularly.


Thanks for reading this post. This post is my first experiment and attempts at a poem. I've recently been reading poetry daily and felt inspired to give it a try.

I actually plucked this from a morning pages journal entry where I was describing my son Leon eating a sushi roll in an unexpected way. And I thought about why I was surprised and if anything it was only unexpected because as an adult I feel like I've conformed to how others expect others to eat a sushi roll. The moment had a sense of fun and innocence and inspired me to write something about it.

Comment below if you have any feedback!