SONNETS OF THE FALSE BELOVEDS (WITH ONE EXCEPTION)

is a sonnet crown first published in The Kenyon Review and later as part of my collection, I DO EVERYTHING I’M TOLD (Tin House Books) in 2023. In March 2025, a video installation of the sonnet crown was screened while I read the work live at the Tate Modern in London. Drawing on influences from Tony Cokes and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, the crown uses pop neon and rhythmic flash to recontextualize the ruins of old cities amidst newly ruined love, the politics of nation-states with the politics of eros. You can read the poems here. To the right is a short excerpt of the verb section of the poem cycle.