Lowell, MA

you’ve been forewarned of the shakedown. opinions
stamped on the pulp of the tabloid newsstand gossip
that’s stacked at your door. you swallowed the last
of free MA. car starts, four windows lowered away:
last views of cityscapes crumbling.
skyscrapers sink into the ground.
all static, no noise: turn the radio down.
those bandwidth signals can’t reach this far.
don’t go holding out on me now
(i thought that you had come to expect more…)