from The Tuymans Sonnets

for Stephen Collis

Training all my
zeroes to perform
like they’re figure-8s.

Rob Sonic
 

191. A Belgian Politician, 2011

See – I
cannot
not – the
crimes

committed
to memory. Allowed
litotes: a
not un-

predictable
lattice of sweat
coming apart

on the ‘bald’
‘pate’ of ‘our’ representative. Word it-
self suspect.

192. Deal – No Deal, 2011

All skill in
ruling out
chance operation.
Limit input

to three reels. Take
modest
sips & don’t
look down. Pay handsomely

to be
so absorbed.
Approach all-

time earthquake pay-out. Luck
‘out’. Deal or no, you
deal.
 

193.
 
‘Hedge-
fund’ hidden in
a hedge-
row; survey
 
of a skein of
less & less
importance to
the principals.
 
(I imagine I
to be un-photogenic, with
good reason.
 
You, on the other hand [best foot forward], are
ably reproduced here, on the
other side, semaphoring.)
 
 
194.
 
Love this
recourse –
in face of nought –
to love –
 
sitting
in the
way
of those
 
who came
before, who,
occupied themselves,
 
squatted
amid the
bullshit & prospered.
 
 
195.
 
‘Smart’ i-
con e-
vaporates – up-
loaded
 
to ‘cloud’.
Hold my hand as we
ascend.
No such ‘luck’: the bitter blur, the
 
dirt adhere. I wasn’t
there & would want
both body & soul, if
 
that’s allowed. As Lady Gaga has
it in my ear: show me
yr teeth.
 
 
196. Plates, 2011
 
Five comparable (i.e. compatible) places/plates:
identikit dessert spoons
social leverage (‘anti-’
into the bargain). What
 
tenuous pattering footsteps
ushered you here? ‘WHAT NATURE
OF YOUR COMPLAINT (summarize
please)?’ How exactly ‘in-
 
fuse with political undertones’? (Retract that vegetation
pronto: beasts
must eat [& together at that – ‘set’
 
badger’s home, communal grouping, mise-en-scène, or fixed?]).
Get a hierarchy;
let it steep.
 
 
 
197.
 
ALL U BUY
IS AMMO
. All the
ammo gets
is used.
 
Home [in]
on the range.
SON SHOOTS NEO-
NAZI FATHER DEAD. In-
 
deed (though standard paternal
grandstanding seems to have been the, er,
trigger in this case). The in-/on-
 
coming gallery, archive.
GHOST TOWNS
BEING BUILT
.
 
 
198. The Couple, 2011
 
Unique pairing –
mutually discrepant –
every couple ever.
Orange tinge nice
 
paradisal touch – presented,
though, at an
angle –
mere projection –
 
reflection suggesting
a page
turning. Our al-
 
together different voiceson separate
tracks? Is that [this?] the way
we see ourselves?  
 
 
199.
 
REFUSE
MATTER. VOID
PURCHASE. Fidget
or die. Itch that itch. WATCH
 
YOUR STEP/THIS SPACE: CON-
TENTS IN
OVER-
HEAD COMPARTMENTS
 
MAY HAVE SHIFTED
IN TRANSIT
. Truth,
consciousness
 
separate
spheres. MIND
THE GAP
.
 
 
200.
 
It
falls: a
sudden
sense of joy. Or
 
surfaces, really, as though
just
below
the
 
skin of things – inspiring a
hesitation – a
trepidation – as
 
though
to apprehend
were to break.