Shopping Sickness Poem by santhana louis

My shrewd wife has just
returned from a ‘Top Class Retail Mall ‘
with a loud rejoice that she has
‘saved' a big three thousand four hundred
by shopping only in ‘discount sale, '
at the end of 3 hour afternoon ‘marathon'

curiously, I peeped into the
a meter-length printed bill -
final tally was seven thousand one hundred.
she did'nt return to me,
the so-called, cosy discount in cash:
‘how sensible I am'- She is shouting back
from the dressing room, in a triumphant slang

She immediately, rang up her mother in Manamadurai
to proclaim the gains, she managed
from the three-tier hunting floors

Basmati rice, Badam milk, Jamoon mix,
Razor blades, ready-mix powders, no-good soups
failed cosmetics, fast expiring, unmoved stocks & fancy
Kargil blankets, rejected ready-mades, air- tight plastics,
things thrown overboard from a sinking ship
one plus one and two plus one, of no regular use
are under distress sale, christened as ‘bargain sale'

I am also at loss to know
how the ‘discount' works

in terms of my budgetary share,
her casual shopping for rupess
seven thousand - is one fifth
of my take-home pay.
………..how I will manage, to the Heavens I pray.