Sunk Cost Fallacy

Sunk Cost Fallacy

My mother doled out

Idioms and proverbs

Her wisdom to

My little ears

“Don’t cry over spilled milk”

She would say

Clean up the mess

Move on

I understood

You can’t put it back

Humiliation is

Trying to lick it up

Either get more milk

Or if there is none

Drink something else instead

But grown up now

Loss aversion

Fear of waste

These are hard 

Heuristics

To shed

Hating to part

With an investment

In time

Of emotion

Trying to make

Sacrifices

Worthwhile

Yet heeding Mom's words

Would be best

It’s a cup that has tipped

Spilled milk

That has soured

Sunk cost

Water under the bridge

Perhaps you will find

A sweeter liquid

To pour
More refreshing

A thirst that is quenched

Clean it up, fill that cup!
No longer 
Throw good money

After bad

And hey, you were

Lactose intolerant

Anyway

Diminishing Marginal Utility

 Diminishing Marginal Utility

There was a miscalculation 

Of worth

It was a novelty

Not necessity

The cost to my peace?

Far too high

A relationship

Simply not in my budget

Just a product

Just a service

It’s an elastic demand

Not a steady need

It’s an “I can do without”

If the price is too high

A trend

When dying of thirst

You don’t look at the particles

Floating in the water

Care if the color is off

A funky taste goes unnoticed

But once the initial utility

Is met

Then comes the noticing

But you weren’t water

Not something needed to survive

Not a staple in my life

Just a passing fad

Like a fidget spinner

Enthusiasm 

Had to have

In the back of a drawer

Collecting dust on a shelf

The more time

The more distance

I realized that value

Was not sublime

The opportunity cost 

Far too great

Sunk costs

Be damned

No monopoly exists

It’s a free market

The marginal revenue

Fell far below

Marginal costs

Besides

Love should never

Be transactional

A measured amount

 A measured amount

Just so much

And nothing more

A taste, a tease

A promise

Of what’s in store

When consummation

Culmination

Finally occurs

Darling, it's a package deal

Without the love

It was always mid

Without the full expression

Of depth of emotion

It scratched an itch

And nothing more

Met a bit

Of a basic need

But failed to enrapture

A creature comfort?

Just a bit

Never truly

Satisfying

Untangling

 Untangling

Muscles knotted

Thoughts snarled

A defensive tightness 

Down to my bone

Taut like a spring

Wound too tightly

Readiness, wary…

And then the cord broke!

The clenching released

Slack 

A slow loosening

And I

Working through the twists

The turns

Of the mess left

In its wake

Am freed