Rob Stanton

from THE TUYMAN SONNETS

67.   TV Set, 1999.

Nullity speaks to nullity:
matched absences align. Say
some words & hope
meaning shuffles in

behind them (to succour them?)? The Brueghel-Tarkovsky moment
hides away ‘the value
of removal’: the ‘sun’
winds down, the ‘light-

source
is [unclear]’. Tuned to nothing,
the screen still signals:

we
are not
there.

68.    First Communion, 1999.

One. Two. One
continued:
binary, ecstatic,
constipated. Crossed

arms –
left hand holds
right elbow –
anxiety ritual.

Entry in-
to group
necessary

& frittering. Food-
stuffs injected
with meaning.

69.   Soldier, 1999.

Appears
on the verge, an
annunciation.
Cut out from

a one-man team.
As though he swam
there & back.
Intimidating.

Intimating.
Intimate.
Eager, urgent, child-

like, covered
up & cloned.
Another domino.

70.   Cosmetics, 2000.

Just supply. Overtaken nexus of
new appliance, application, performance
enhancer. A typically pleasing
pastel

shade of blue. Where to settle on
for your
new face.
Reason (& spur).

Poison (& balm). Un-
natural; invisible; in-
divisible. Call

for a
new image
deafening.

Born in County Durham, raised outside Birmingham, educated in Cardiff and Leeds, Rob Stanton currently lives and teaches in Austin, Texas. He is the author of The Method (Penned in the Margins 2011) and Trip- (Knives Forks & Spoons 2013).