Dish Best Served Cold

Immediacy is the dish done
the minute after eating. 
It's a show of respect,
like choosing the spotless
wine glass for the highest
guest. If honor goes down
hot, more like strong tea
than a tall glass, it follows
that retribution would be
a chip off the ice block, 
a slip-and-fall case of 
negligence, a green-
eyed, still-frozen pea,
out of the package so
as to give no succor
to any resulting bruise.