Sometimes we disappear

Sometimes we disappear

Gossamer blue

People are windows

To be seen through

Talking whilst collecting groceries

The soil is still attached

To the potatoes

They taste better that way

Conversation washes through the aisles

Counting the pennies

Prices never go down.

The Russians have been blamed

For warmongering

All my life.

It is their fault everything

Is so expensive.

So many opinions

The aisles were packed

With rolling news

Trolleys with squeaky wheels

And punnets of strawberries

A little girl, her blond hair braided

Too grown up for her years

Hung off her mother's arm,

Squawking alarmingly

She didn’t like the tone of the conversation

And would much prefer it

If her mother would stop talking

About Inflation

To focus on pick and mix

She was afraid the allowance for treats

Would run out

Before the ice cream counter,

She adored cookies and cream

In a cone.

Her mother took the strawberries

Out of the trolley

They were too expensive

To have with fresh cream

For tea

It will be jam again.

It’s down to the Russians

And the Chinese

Europe, the Middle East, the USA

All of them in fact

Whatever happened to gunboat diplomacy,

German efficiency.

So much of what was said

Went right over her head

She was only four feet two.

She understood somebody was to blame

For the price of Fish Fingers

But couldn’t quite grasp who

Or why anybody should have to pay

More than they could reasonably afford

When, if it wasn’t sold

It was all

Just thrown away.

They use it to fill up

The holes in the land.

Apparently,

It didn’t just disappear

Like people.