REAL KILL LIST documents a thread of Facebook comments reacting to Josef Kaplan’s conceptual poem Kill List (Cars Are Real, 2013). Kill List consists of 232 names of contemporary American poets in alphabetical order, arranged in fifty-eight four-line stanzas, with each name followed by either “is a rich poet” or “is comfortable.” With this, Kaplan not only provoked discussions on class and poetry but also on the ethics of conceptual writing and canon. These discussions took place mostly on social media.

Joey Yearous-Algozin’s REAL KILL LIST copies the sixty-three posts found in the comment section of Magdalena Zurawski’s Facebook post “Josef Kaplan: I am insulted. I am comfortable and not on your list. You must not think I am a FUCKING POET,” including all formattings, links, likes, names, and profile pictures.

REAL KILL LIST shifts the focus from the poets Kaplan deems capitalist to poets who care to discuss the morality of such a list and whether or not they are on the list. By suggesting that this is the “real kill list,” Yearous-Algozin moves the discussion from capitalism to capitalist beliefs, and the viewpoint of an individual poet subjectively defining a canon to the seemingly more objective one of poets putting themselves on the list. This conceptual approach, however, is no less subjective, as Yearous-Algozin selects the Facebook thread and also actively participates in the discussion himself, as is indicated by an “Unlike” button that can be used to retract a “Like”—an option available only to the logged-in user.

The blurb on Lulu, kept in Troll Thread’s typical how-to style, promises, “HOW TO BE SOCIAL.”