TRANSITORY
When it rains for days
the value of water plummets,
and it can rain anything—
slices of American cheese
sail down from the sky.
The supermarkets black out their windows
and the mice take an early retirement
from collecting our crumbs.
The hoarders are Dickens’s villains
that paid less for their toilet paper
because they bought it last week.
People argue red or blue
instead of seeing economic shapes.
The most ominous stormcloud of all
is the inflation of our vocabulary—
Brits have over a hundred words for “rain.”
My five-year-old daughter crinkles the empty
plastic stomach lining a cereal box
and sighs, “Shrinkflation.”
—from Poets Respond
June 9, 2022
__________
Katie Dozier (KHD): “Like so many Americans, I am tired of the politicizing of everything—including the basic economic principle of supply and demand. I read this news story while seeking shelter in a rain storm after a breakfast where my homeschooled daughter exhibited an economic vocabulary well beyond her years. Inflation may not be the most naturally suited subject for poetry but I hope you find the diction to be cost-effective.” (web)
