Poem Of The Day: The Market

Poem Of The Day #54

Dragon fruits piled high-- 
white flesh and red flesh--
prices defer but taste alike.
Grapes fresh from the hot house--
red, green, or black,
some seedless, some not--
sweet, ripe, and shapely
not really organic, but very nearly so. 
Korean pears as big as 
a cantaloupe--
four dollars each, 
and I call this a sale. 
Pineapples ripe and juicy,
bananas small and sweet,
pomegranate as red as fire
that will burn your eyes. 

Lychee is twelve dollars a pound, 
but it's only ten bucks one week ago. 
Soy milk, tofu, bean sprouts
all up and up--
nothing is the same price as before. 
I wonder what the store has been doing?
Changing their price tag every hour?
Sushi seasoning six dollars a bottle,
buckwheat noodle ten dollars a pack. 
And the worst comes to red bean--
two pounds for six dollars forty nine cents--
double the cost from one month prior. 
There's a shortage of cashiers in the store,
but no shortage of long checkout lines.

I read about inflation 
in books of WWII or 
in countries far away. 
Is it true that everyone of us will 
have to go through at least
one big inflation, several recessions, 
a couple of broken hearts, 
some big miscalculations,
many misunderstandings,
several school or office or family bullies, 
one or two disillusions,
disappointments in varied degrees?
Is it true that nobody is an exception? 
Is it true? 




14 thoughts on “Poem Of The Day: The Market

  1. I suppose it is, Haoyan. We all wish to believe that we are exceptions but that in itself is the common linking factor. I can feel your frustration and also the tired soul syndrome. I have encountered both several times in life. Keep writing! That should ease the pain. 🙂

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  2. Sadly it’s true. It sucks every two weeks my grocery bill is around $300 and I do my best to buy as cheap as possible. If I know I will be short I dip into our far from avast savings. But, I know other people don’t have that luxary. I sometimes bwish it was a lot larger.

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    1. So true. Every week, the price is up from the previous week and I’ve never experienced that before. I often wonder if the price can go down later on after all the crises are over, but other people don’t think so…

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