Serena Mayer, The Lost Sonnets

Iconoclasm, image by Irene Koronas

The Lost Sonnets

1.

   so as to avoid being caught up

      He had met the writer

 and this is the name by which

   here he thought the sound

not permit him to entertain

    unable to leave the country

  a buried cache of nature

    which to conjure and juggle

 yanked the curtain of hair

   who knew him best.

     sensible provisions

when such events

   permission to seek treatment

        . He is not unreasonable

2.

        iconoclasm

   of spiral shapes

and plays his hand.

   oblivion, dreaming,

     , between the fields,

  her process of working

    critical acclaim

  and the speed

      and duration

  kept in his apartment

    failed to deliver

 permanent works

        won’t stay forever

   from the beginning

3.

   made something positive out of

chaotic gestural traces

      need is not more.

   people about whether or not

      that was more difficult

 but not as he had imagined.

       considered failures

    distant prospect of the original

            type of work.

      remnants was influenced

         , or even liquid.

       It has become her,

   for the first time it was quiet

 I’ve seen the work myself.

4.

    you to desist.

engaged in any mischief

        a correct count

  partial records

    had made a name for

        after I was sent here

 would return to

       the broader tragedies

     pushed back down

        bound and sold

  a site of uncontrolled

        that will one day reach

     other visionaries will

 , and at every stage write you

5.

         to the next story,

             as not there

  among the secret community

       unsettled areas.

    and spectacular fossils

  systematic disintegration

     is nothing left of either

   history, manifested

       free movement of finance

         unreason ever more rapidly

had some money in her hand

        enquiries were made

 a continuous voiceover

   shimmering with mirages.

6.

     in opposition to the restraint

        focus on the mechanisms

  staging spectacles which

   have been working at speed

      have been deemed unfit

         erasing the whole thing

  dangers of antagonising

       personal freedoms became

underscore the importance

    rather than its subject matter

  It is necessary to work

             to understand that

      hidden or dispose of

  and exhibiting while working

7.

    and reverent in treatment

      slowly under the weight

  another's particular history

        within the shouting

     the night time walk.

  time to gain the approval

    an old man by now

       the path marked by

  mislaid or discarded

pasted over immediately

     impose their beliefs

   damage, destroying both

the gradual erosion of

  , nothing remained after

—Serena Mayer

Serena Mayer studied anthropology and social geography, and is interested in hidden texts and forgotten or discarded language. Her writing has previously appeared in Nutshell, Electric Zone, Here to Stay, I Am Not A Silent Poet, X-Peri, Amethyst Review, Odd Moments, Reflections, A Restricted View From Under the Hedge, Poetry WTF, Storm Warning, and International Times. Her first book, Theoretical Complexities, is forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books.