Inflation.

Inflation

Vonda must have been
the best-looking girl in
Merced County in the 1930s
and still looked good widowed
when she came to visit
from Houston this spring

I was surprised at her interest
in the place
she asked if the Fruit Basket in
Madera was still operating off
old Highway 99

She remembered
stopping there in 1936
with Cliff, the man she married later
She said they had pie and coffee
and the bill was only thirty cents

She remembered nice size pieces
of pie and real coffeе
and there were tears in her violet eyes

It reminded me of the way she
looked when Cliff was knocked
cold in a football game with Turlock

Notes

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McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.