Consumer Time on Bredon,
The prices sound so dear,
From all YAs they call them
To people far and near;
A happy noise? No fear!

Here of a Wednesday evening
(My love, they wouldn't lie)
We heard the stable prices
Go soaring up so high
About us in the sky.

The bills were mounting daily,
But still the voice would cry:
'Go to the shops, good people,
Good people, go and buy.'
And then my love would sigh.

And I would turn and answer
With voice and visage glum;
'You talk of ceiling prices?
O, noisy lad, come, come,
You must think we are dumb.'

Consumer Time, Dunedin?
Oh, turn to the shortwave.
I wish I were with Housman
Where none has need to save —
Lying pretty in the grave.