towards a new architecture
In 1926 Laura and Beatrice die of old age in the exact
same room and hour, 400 miles and 35 years apart. This
is superarchitecture. You knew this. You were 19 when you saw
Italy for the first time. You were 19.9 when you built your first
horizontal city in the gap between two strangers’ teeth. Petrarch
and Dante closed
everything. And what I’m trying to say is this, just this —
I got your letters too late. You told me that you were giving up poetry again
because you couldn’t fit enough dead ends into a rispetto. We could
have worked this out. But instead you dreamed yourself into bridges made
out of hospital corridors and the 56
Venetian windows that smashed your father’s eyes into rain. Borromini, you said,
is the guerrilla warfare manual for the 21st century. I don’t know. In Supervenice you ate
steel and ice. You drilled holes in your hands and you still
haven’t recovered from the speed and the direction of nightfall.
same room and hour, 400 miles and 35 years apart. This
is superarchitecture. You knew this. You were 19 when you saw
Italy for the first time. You were 19.9 when you built your first
horizontal city in the gap between two strangers’ teeth. Petrarch
and Dante closed
everything. And what I’m trying to say is this, just this —
I got your letters too late. You told me that you were giving up poetry again
because you couldn’t fit enough dead ends into a rispetto. We could
have worked this out. But instead you dreamed yourself into bridges made
out of hospital corridors and the 56
Venetian windows that smashed your father’s eyes into rain. Borromini, you said,
is the guerrilla warfare manual for the 21st century. I don’t know. In Supervenice you ate
steel and ice. You drilled holes in your hands and you still
haven’t recovered from the speed and the direction of nightfall.
Unknown. Venice canal, 1870s. Carbon print. The J. Paul Getty Museum.
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Yongyu Chen is a student at Cornell University where he studies Comparative Literature. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, Sonora Review, BOAAT, DIAGRAM, PANK, and Anomaly. He helps read prose for The Adroit Journal.