Bogof & Obesity

Bogof & Obesity

They slap the signs on the shelves,

Buy one, get one free, the bold print flashes,

Hands reach out, dragging more than hunger,

Trolleys groan under sweets no one truly needs.

Crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks, piled high,

The promise of a bargain masks the weight it brings,

A nation swells in quiet disbelief,

Calories counted only in the eyes of the checkout.

Every aisle hums with temptation,

Two for the price of one, or was it three?

We fill our homes, our mouths, our lives

With things that sparkle and dissolve too fast.

Children tug at parents’ sleeves,

Eyes wide, hearts racing at the free,

They learn early that want can disguise need,

And that abundance can be a slow poison.

Evenings end with leftovers of desire,

Boxes and wrappers opened, lets have mor?

The body holds the cost, silent but sure,

Flesh remembering the promises of the store.

Outside, the world rushes past the windows,

Joggers, cyclists, movement like a whispered threat,

Inside, the glow of fluorescent lights

Makes sugar and salt seem harmless, like friends.

Bogof, they call it, as if clever,

A magic trick for the wallets, not the waistlines,

A deal, a lure, a quiet empire

Built on the expanding shadows of appetite.

And still we buy, we stack, we eat,

Counting bargains while the scales do not lie,

Our bodies curve with every free gift,

Proof that nothing free comes without cost.