Good Money After Bad
Joe Milazzo
‍

loading a trailer preemptively loaded
with high shelves of unsold
replica endorsements not one United
Way chapter will accept as a donation

sure it’s the perfect heist
assuming the knocking
over occurs on some decommissioned blacktop
deteriorating like the common-law
marriage between Hammond and Gary Indiana

question would you
wed a hottie who shared
your surname already
question do you
re-centipede your shopping cart
or leave it to slow-dance
like a zombie
do you curse whoever designed
this parking lot without
angled spots question
when thwarted by life’s indifference
do you mumble under
your breath about other people
who leave their brains out for snacks  

what a mess of fresh scuff marks
this commonwealth has become
the plumbing in that prism
is pretty dirt-bike-ish
a choppy dressage
the quirks one mints
should last forever rather
than breaking every 90
days and
forwarding the weary endearments
of one’s platinum status into recidivism

question but what
the fudge do I know
when the rubber meets
the diddly-squat
question would or wouldn’t
I advise my internal Pittsburgh
that its accusations
are eternally welcome question
is “never say never” an iteration
in a chain of bluffing diplomacies
or a spambot’s dating profile

answer ask yourself
how did we get where everywhere
remains up in the foreseeable air
alongside the old wives’
reports fomenting in dented cans