Pat Jones

Western Union

by Rick Mullin

According to the Western Union ad,
my love can be transferred, my kids persuaded
I’m on top of things. My mom, who’s sad,
may proudly smile again! What if I waited
till the final nano-sec to pay
the mortgage? I can choose a credit scheme
by which my wife might feel secure and stay
with me. That’s good. I’m glad! For it would seem
that Western Union has at last deployed
that final triumph of the sciences —
the gauge that inside players have enjoyed
for measuring the heart’s appliances
and inching love into a perfect fit.
In this world, love is money. Deal with it.

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Rick Mullin is a business journalist and painter whose poetry has appeared in print and online journals including Umbrella Journal, Measure, Light Quarterly and The Shit Creek Review. His Chapbook, Aquinas Flinched, is available from Modern Metrics.