Two weeks ago at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival, writer Misty-Lynn Sanico shared this piece of flash poetry:

You know t’ings stay bad when no more poi.
Cuz get taro shortage.
Mo’ worse, da price of poke stay rising.
Cuz get fish shortage.
But how’s dis, now we gotta borrow sand from one beach to another?
We gotta borrow sand?
Like one sand shortage?!
Maybe aloha shortage.
Now days, not like before.

Her words stayed with me, and when people started talking about how hard it was to get lei for graduation this week, I thought of how that poem was almost prescient — that this new shortage fit the theme so perfectly. Sanico saw it, too.

"Had I known then about the flower shortage everyone is dealing with now I would have added something about that shortage, too. Cuz, wow, yeah?" Sanico said.

It’s always been tricky getting flowers in May because of the triple whammy of May Day celebrations, Mother’s Day and graduation. By the middle of the month, the plumeria trees in schoolyards are picked bare, crown flower trees are down to just leaves and caterpillars and the bees around the pakalana bushes are all frustrated.

This year seems to be the worst ever.

People are reporting a single strand of puakenikeni selling for $50 — kind of a bad joke since the name translates to "10-cent flower." Micronesian ginger lei are going as high as $50. Rope pikake has been spotted priced at $80. The lei market has become reliant upon orchids imported from Thailand, and recent flooding in that country has caused a shortage. Backyards aren’t as big as they used to be. Yard shortage.

So finally those inflatable swim rings you see at graduation make sense, right? There’s the symbolism of buoyancy and safe floating through the waters of life and all that. And they’re something that all the friends and classmates can autograph. But mostly, they’re cheap.

Without readily available flowers, and with the general dislike of the plastic replicas of lei flowers, people are getting creative.

The summer fun/kupuna club craft projects are coming in handy right now. Remember the "ilima" lei you make with three McDonald’s straws and the orange yarn?

On Kauai, Janice Bond makes ribbon and yarn lei in various school colors and charges a very reasonable $3 per lei.

"They will last forever," she said. "They’re fast to make and don’t use much material."

Other ideas include instant-ramen lei (put the bowls in cellophane and tie together — makes for a huge lei!) or slipper lei (two pairs make one lei, assuming a smallish neck). Of course, money lei are always well-received at graduation, whether the fanned $20-bill type or lesser denominations, even coins.

"My sister and auntie make the penny leis," Albert Makanani said. "Change $20 and you get leis for days!"

Of course, that assumes you have time to assemble a lei. Horticulturalist Heidi Bornhorst says there are plenty of flowers in bloom, including stephanotis, pikake and plumeria. Perhaps no one has the time to pick and string flowers. Time shortage. Now days not like before.

Reach Lee Cataluna at lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.