I check Temu, my retinas rebel.
Prices rise, even on items marked “locally available” –
exempt from tariffs. Merchants make up
the difference where they can. (Just ask Walmart.)  

Higher prices on coffee, instant or grounds, feel punitive.
Will I be denied that waking scent?
Will my treasured French press be relegated
to cheap, generic black tea bags at $2.99 a box?
Will tariffs hit tea?

Even on Amazon joe costs more, though
my Café du Monde preference with chickory remains
manageable. Perhaps more folks will find the additive stretches
the brew, or does the cult of fake coffee attract:
Postum, Almost Coffee, Pero, Teeccino?
No, no cost relief down that road.
Why pay more for zero caffeine?  

“Eggs are down 400%,” says the fool
who thinks “groceries” constitutes a quaint, old-fashioned term.
Is this prophecy: groceries vanish into the past?
GLP-1 products become obsolete?  

My Italian lemon ricotta cake will not be baked;
refusal to pay certain prices constitutes personal protest.
Basque cheesecake? Cream cheese equals luxury
on Social Security.  

A friend hit the local food pantry.
Produce filled one refrigerator, “Take two.”
When she got home,
opened her bags of strawberries and little zucchini
to reveal rot and mold. What was the point?
With 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum
even canned commodities will vanish.  

Non-organic bananas now appear at the old price for organic.
This is a problem: we don’t build bananas here.