The naval follies on the Serpentine, 1814
Along with 11 excellent writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ben Lerner, I was commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery in London to write and record a text to be listened to by those walking across the Serpentine bridge in the park. My piece, a letter from the London of a different 2014 to a lost friend, can be found here along with the others, to be listened to in whatever park, room, or sub-bridge one so desires.
A cloud hung a long slash over the moon and below it, they had rigged for blowing sky-high the Orient – the French flagship Orient, that is, whose shattered mast formed the first of Admiral Nelson’s three coffins. But the oil got loose from the ship, got everywhere, and when the moment came to spark, sudden the fire roared toward the ducks...