Chris Bullard is a native of Jacksonville, FL. He lives in Collingswood, NJ, and works for the federal government as an Administrative Law Judge. He received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from Wilkes University. Plan B Press published his chapbook, You Must Not Know Too Much, in 2009. Big Table Publishing published his second chapbook, O Brilliant Kids, in 2011. WordTech Editions has accepted his book of poetry, Back, for publication in November of 2013.--------
Reactor
Hoots and alarms and sirens:
the engineers in the prefrontal cortex
were losing it, baby, as our words
surmounted the seawall. We’d pushed
too many buttons, locked too many
levers to take back control. Neurons
refused to fire and the core went critical
swinging the system past its limits.
Down in the reptile brain, mistakes
started swishing their armored tails,
waiting for the containment walls
to implode. I was about to scream
something so sharp, it would atomize
the world we had built in an instant.
Simple Enough
As you can tell
by the barking
of invisible dogs
the sun has lurched
into the sky,
as you can tell
from the repeated
dipping of a branch,
squirrels are fighting
in the maple,
as you can tell
from the agony of leaves
a rough wind is
assaulting the forest;
as you can tell
from the threads
at the edge of the coat
it has been worn too long,
as you can tell
from a face turned away,
though no word
is spoken, it’s over,
as you can tell
from how the man
flips the cards your way,
you will have no luck,
as you can tell
from the tremendous fence
enclosing a mansion,
you are not wanted here,
as you can tell
by the stars aligned
in the wrong positions,
there was never a chance
it would turn out well.
it would turn out well.