Food and drink are mentioned throughout the poem, particularly in the opening lines: “You’re lured under a towering stone bridge with promises / of brick oven pizza, swirls of hand-whipped gelato” (Lines 1-2). This positions food as a seductive lure, similar to a venus fly trap or the gingerbread house of Hansel and Gretel. Food also hints at some of the tense undercurrents in this place, heightening the overall ominous tone of the poem.