The Greatest Critical Apparatus

Can public imagination,

not public

reason,

realize explosions

are rewarding

for survival?

Reactions obtained

for the defense

actually show audiences

shocked

by heroic examples

straight

from God.

Familiar examples,

examples

we’ve seen reproduced

in battle

and in slide shows.

Terrorgram

You have been sent a message

     in a trashed conversation,

     in pixelated images taken

     in Amsterdam and Frankfurt,

in a mural, in a microbiome,

in an aging headshop cloud decal.

We urban canoe a tunnel

     troubled with tiny cancer

     bubbles.

A man convicted of larcenies

disturbs his whole group home

    with a fatal burst of nuance.

    Someone plans a lawsuit.

Test Tube Babies

There can be no entanglements.

      In some virile fashion,

      his wife

will accompany him.

     The reason:

to speak in plain terms again.

There can be no special family

     kept away

     from business

trouble.

It is the price of lasting peace.

Patrick Williams is a poet and academic librarian living in Central New York. His recent work appears in publications including Noble/Gas Qtrly, Posit, Glittermobs, and Heavy Feather Review. His chapbook Hygiene in Reading (Publishing Genius, 2016) was awarded the 2015 Chris Toll Memorial Prize. He edits Really System, a journal of poetry and extensible poetics. Find him at patrickwilliamsintext.com and on Twitter

featured photography by badpoem