The speaker is stuck in a flat, empty evening. "Nothing to do / so nothing will do" plays on the word "nothing": there is no activity to fill the time, and nothing on offer would satisfy anyway. The title, "Consumer report," hints at a life of buying and absorbing things, but here even that leaves the speaker unmoved. "I cease to wonder" is the quiet turning point. Curiosity simply switches off.
Then the evening news arrives "with its ash," a sharp image that suggests disaster, burning, and leftover debris, all delivered as routine. The final lines are more puzzling: "visions on ship / that sink on shore." The images seem to promise something, then collapse before they can mean anything, as if even a rescue or arrival ends in sinking. The poem doesn't explain this, which adds to its unsettled feel.
The mood is weary, detached, and a little bleak. The speaker doesn't rage; they just fade, numbed by a steady supply of bad news.