downthefallfullpassagain

I’m very excited. My friend Brianna Cunliffe and I are beginning to lay the groundwork for a soft open on a micro publishing house based in Durham, New Hampshire. We will be publishing essays and anthologies on transformative futures, starting from the local and regional levels. Taking inspiration from Elizabeth Rush’s Rising , we are calling our venture Flooded Pine Press . This idea was born the day after the 2024 election. I was reeling in my apartment in Venice, having cast my absentee ballot weeks before. That day I had plans to meet my dear friend Matilda, who was in town from Helsinki, and she invited me to walk the Ponte della Libertà (Freedom Bridge, an apt name for the day of mourning) that connects the mainland to Venice. The sunny distance, with cars and trains swooping past us for all three miles of our walk over open lagoon, was ritualistic for me. Helped to focus on what’s important, what was to come, in great company. We were later lounging in the sun on Campo San Lore...

  My friend Abigail asked me to put this up online before the inauguration. Part of a series in progress. An investigator’s room. A: That’s the question, you said it: who’s responsible? B: There were two shots. A: Two shots, who cares, it’s a gun and a trigger. B: Two guns. The autopsy results say it can’t have been the same shooter. A: Does that corroborate the footage? B: The footage tells us nothing. You’ve seen it, heck half the country’s seen it. A: Play it anyway. C: [offstage] Just have to rig up the projector, one moment. B: It’s inconclusive. A: If there are two shots we’re fucked. B: Shhh, it’s not over. It just means double the leg work. A: Four times, eight times. And they have an alibi, you’re forgetting. B: A shooter with an alibi, you’re kidding me. A: Because they can say it wasn’t me who killed him. The other guy did. C: [offstage] We’re on. [Pause. In different voice] Bang-bang! B: You see? Literally nothing. A: Were they simultaneous shots? Could they have planne...