Profit - Prophet

Book excerpt: An indictment of the apocalyptically limited capitalist imagination and a heartfelt plea for something better before it's too late, Patrick Blagrave's debut collection spans from the time of John the Baptist to any number of potential endings while remaining centered on the everyday realities of life, work, and payment under late-capitalism. In sonnet sequences and in sprawling visions, "Profit - Prophet" is a meditation on class and time and a rejection of the ways corporations, landlords, kings, and bosses of all kinds work to remove alternatives to the future they prescribe.