08-11-2024

VI

You read it happened in Venice.

Once crossed by prisoners moving from one prison to another, this passage made of Istrian stone was completed in 1602/03.

It is Carson who leads you to believe that you know what she means when she talks about crossing the bridge of sighs.

Note that a modification of her original Short Talk “On Defloration“ from 1987 (published in the Southwest Review by the Southern Methodist University in Texas) can be found in a publication from 2001, which appears now as part of her fictional essay in 29 tangos:

Early next day

I wrote a short talk (“On Defloration”) which he stole and had published

in a small quarterly magazine.

Overall this was a characteristic interaction between us.

Or should I say ideal.

Neither of us had ever seen Venice.