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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

👉 Here's my 2nd ekphrastic piece in PLAYTIME #13, alongside Frida's painting of Burbank being burbanked 🎨 ℹ️ PLAYTIME is a series of pamphlets with playful poetry, published by priapress, a side gig of Devon Gallant (who also co-runs Cactus & Accent). More info: ko-fi.com/priapress/shop

Poem by Carlos A. Pittella, published on PLAYTIME no. 13.

"1931. Burbank portrayed by Frida"

If Hokusai said “plants have veins,”
then graft me
to any bucketful of plums.
But don’t go cheap on color;
what I mean is bruised
Douro wine so argillaceous
you’ll bitterlick for weeks.
Ain’t bitter the best?
Salt begs for water, sweet for sleep,
sour for grin, while bitter just
is—recoils upon itself
black-hole-like,
luring
& swallowing.

1931 Frida Kahlo's painting of Burbank, featuring the famous horticulturist as a human-plant hybrid: his upper body in a dark suit is grafted (i.e., "burbanked") into a tree trunk, according to the technique he invented, while his lower legs are replaced by roots extending into the soil above his own skeleton underground.

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Assisted Lab @assistedlab.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Publishing today an updated entry on Amanda Villegas's photos of her husband Chris Davis. This raw and arresting series about Chris's end-of-life influenced legislative amendments to California's End of Life Option Act. @amandaraevillegas assistedlab.ch/visual/this-...

assistedlab.ch

Assisted Lab's Living Archive of Assisted Dying – 'This is Cancer in The End' by Amanda Villegas

Assisted Lab is a research group based at University of St Gallen, Switzerland, with research affiliates in Canada, Northern Ireland, and the Netherlands, which investigates the cultural productions –...

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

PLAYTIME is a series of pamphlets with playful poetry. It's published by priapress, a side gig of Devon Gallant (who also co-runs Cactus Press & Accent OpenMic). I have 3 ekphrastic poems in PLAYTIME #13 ⚠️ Here's one, alongside the painting it's playing with 🎨 More info: ko-fi.com/priapress/shop

Poem by Carlos A. Pittella, published on PLAYTIME no. 13.

"1902. Vallotton’s painting of Vuillard drawing in Honfleur"

Send nudes, you say,
but all my clothes grayed
shadelessly.
My cap now lighter,
my cape darker,
yet both ashed by slowburning suns…
See my feet disappear
into green
to speak of violets
& that’s perhaps the best I can do:
striptell you how
naked my ankles
turn foliage
—one skin tickly.

1902 painting by Vallotton, titled "Vuillard drawing in Honfleur": a grey-dressed red-bearded man holds a notebook, in which he draws; he stands in front of a fence that separates him from the sea in the background, while his feet disappears into green foliage.

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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

Amogha @amoghaaa.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

"Since syntax" "grading sibilances into proper whistle" SUCH an honour to receive this well-crafted poem from my dear dear friend ❤️‍🔥

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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

Assisted Lab @assistedlab.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

New in our archive 👇 Ecuadorian writer Adolfo Macías Huerta's award-winning novel Pensión Babilonia follows a couple unraveling after their daughter's death: the husband drawn into a secret society that turns suicide into ceremony Analysis by @pittella.bsky.social assistedlab.ch/textual/pens...

assistedlab.ch

Assisted Lab's Living Archive of Assisted Dying – 'Pensión Babilonia' by Adolfo Macías Huerta

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Assisted Lab @assistedlab.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

New in our Archive: 14-year-old Valentina Maureira's 2015 video plea to Chile's president requesting the right to die. Her appeal went viral and ignited a national debate on assisted dying in Chile. Analysis by @pittella.bsky.social assistedlab.ch/visual/video-plea #AssistedDying #Chile

assistedlab.ch

Assisted Lab's Living Archive of Assisted Dying – Video plea by Valentina Maureira

In 2015, 14yo Valentina Maureira pleaded with Chile's president for the right to die, in a video that went viral, sparking debate in Chile and beyond.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

! love this poem & love that the names of millions form a poem around the poem swirling like a star-dervish ✨ Also: long time no see! glad to find you in these bluer skies...💙

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Jose Hernandez Diaz @josehernandezdz.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Last poem in “Startlement“ by Ada Limón.

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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Applications are due by end-of-day ET this Friday, August 7! Please join us — and please share!

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I didn't think you were advocating that.💙 I was just concerned your point could be perverted into a slippery-slope argument for blaming "field-migrants" for all the slop... "Boundaries" are charged & tricky—but I see value in both being grounded in disciplinary methods & border-crossing them.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I see your point—& mostly agree.... though, as an immigrant researcher who's also changed fields, I may be sensitive to arguments for increased borders/silos, whether political or disciplinary. There must be a way to both protect quality control AND provide cross-disciplinary meeting spaces.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I agree with the encroaching of slop, but I also think it's not exclusive to inter/transdisciplinary journals... In any case, I see transdisciplinary spaces as key to promote new approaches to wicked problems—those intractable by a single perspective/PoV. But still not an excuse for slop. 😅

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Paul David Mena @extraspecialbitter.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Family Court — sparrows build a nest in the "o"

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@Shamlet @shamlet.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

how to deconstruct edutainment, that tempting televangelist

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

My « definition » of senryu contains multitudes 💙 Thank you for playing, Alan 🙌

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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

Alan Summers @thehaikutec.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Obviously not haiku or senryu, just 5-7-5 comic verse: fab, grotty, and naff each counterculture movement Tiffanys breakfast

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

So many megas in that unnamed megahit year! I bet you considered all the ways to wordsplit “hydrochlorofluorocarbon” before summoning the shark repellent (which, I editorially agree, is the perfect opening!) 🥰

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Sarah Wolfson @sarahwolfson.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Irresistible. The marriage of poets & lexicographers is my sweet spot. oh, shark repellent you earth-sheltered megahit sweet warp speed yuzu [year redacted; I grew up fearing acid rain] Wanna play? 👉 Write a 5-7-5 haiku with 3+ words from your birth year — at least 1 per line. Link below.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

How could we even speak before “banh mi” was a word? 💙

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aaron boothby @ellipticalnight.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

bunker bust that banh mi supercell's effed up, air fryer heat dome's drag-n-drop [1985]

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

TWEAKING THE ASSIGNMENT: 😇 👉 Write a 5-7-5 haiku with 3+ words from your birth year — at least 1 per line. [1983] Defunct CD-ROMs... Funny to be WAN of them —cyberpunk Jedi www.merriam-webster.com/time-travele...

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Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Kyla Houbolt @luaz.bsky.social in Back Patio

Bless This Discomfort

No.
I am tired of almost everything.
Letting in what light there is.
Strange dolls lined up against
a mystery. It’s just a stone wall.
We all see how insane it is,
our world, that normal.
Time to sing louder
reset the clocks to no digits
slow cook all plans
dance on the head of a pin
watch yourself spin
widdershins then
sunwise then
both at once.
Banish masks. Breathe free.
After all, home is only
a temporary location
among the great wheeling stars
and the only real question
is who you are.

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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

HAD @havehashad.com · 06/07/2026

"Had a bunch of debt that went to collections like parking tickets and a couple pulled teeth and there’s this whole insurance claim I didn’t square from a car accident where so the way it went down was..." killer long single sentence from Max Steiner! www.havehashad.com/ixuzk

havehashad.com

A Credit Score Is Just 3 Numbers by Max Steiner

Had a bunch of debt that went to collections like parking tickets and a couple pulled teeth and there’s this whole insurance claim I didn’t square from a car accident where so the way it went down was…

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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

HAD @havehashad.com · 18/07/2026

brilliant poem and use of form today from Theo Nguyen ! www.havehashad.com/gmp6i

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Honoured to write for @assistedlab.bsky.social about poet Daniele Pieroni’s spiritual testament. Pieroni’s prose poem known as “Trascolorare” became entangled with the ongoing assisted-dying debate in Italy.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Thank you for the kind words. Indeed, it may well be the urgent & irresistible pull of poetry disguised as “coincidence” ☺️

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Reposted by Carlos A. Pittella

Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

The only other poem about #JeanCharles I know of is this piece by Robin Durnford, from her fabulous 2012 collection "A Lovely Gutting". [karmic fact] Robin & I ended up sharing an office at John Abbott & somehow realized we both had written poems about Jean Charles ❤️‍🔥

Poem 'STOCKWELL STATION' by Robin Durnford:

down from London
enshrined in tunnel light
a blind man strokes
his muzzled dog under glass eyes
watching for change

or escalations to Brazil
where Menezes' dreams
electric-cling to flowers dropped
from a straining immigrant mop

cleaning a city half-bombed
on its way to beauty

Cover of Robin Durnford's 2012 poetry collection "A Lovely Gutting," published by MQUP, featuring a high-contrast, deep red-toned photograph of a collapsed, decaying wooden structure in a barren field under a pale sky.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Every July 22, thinking of #JeanCharles ❤️‍🔥, a Brazilian immigrant "wrongly" killed by the Met in 2005. (where you read "wrongly", insert "racially/xenophobically") I wrote a poem in memoriam Jean Charles, recreating the moments leading to his killing & questioning the right to represent his death.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

« Linear at first, Florencia’s thread was spun over the course of one hour, as she kept adding posts every few minutes. Yet, it also grew like an interactive rhizome... » I wrote for @assistedlab.bsky.social about the content, form, & legal impact of Florencia Salgueiro's viral thread.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This bureaucratic gem: “AUTHENTICITY A new headstone at the cemetery awaits certification by birds” —Nelson Ball

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

« I’m tired of hearing how nuanced it all is. It’s not. They say it has everything to do with money & power, but what they want us to forget is that it is about how we love. » ❤️‍🔥 —Yesenia Montilla

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I wrote for @assistedlab.bsky.social about the real-drama-turned-stage play of Dr. Hourmann & its legal impact. Hourmann's story was also featured in a wonderful recent episode of the podcast @radio-ambulante.bsky.social, titled 'Historia clínica' (Medical record).

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Book Cover of the Day:

UNDER THE TREES
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
Olive Green cover with lettering in gold banners, circular frame with white ribbon decoration in centre with Pan figure playing a pipe beneath trees.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

« ‘It’s death by bureaucracy’… …we can’t help but feel the film is as much about dying as it is about immigration: depending on our passports, we need expensive visas – and sometimes illegal coyotes – for the final border-crossing. » My meta-review of Dreaming of Lions @assistedlab.bsky.social

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Assisted Lab @assistedlab.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

New entry on the Portuguese – Brazilian – Spanish film ‘Sonhar com Leões’ by Paolo Marinou-Blanco See 👇 for a discussion by @pittella.bsky.social of its depiction of suicidal ideations, assisted dying, and border-crossings assistedlab.ch/visual/sonha...

assistedlab.ch

Assisted Lab's Living Archive of Assisted Dying – 'Sonhar com Leões' by Paolo Marinou-Blanco

Seeking a peaceful death, Gilda and Amadeu join Joy Transition International, in a comedy that starts in Portugal and ends in Spain, where a doctor is willing to bend bureaucracies.

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

"..... More people will turn back and be subjected to violence because of something they cannot or should not have to change about themselves, such as their race, religion, nationality, or political opinion."

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

More from Justice Sotomayor's dissent: "The consequences of today’s decision are predictable. More people will die. More people will attempt to cross the border illegally, and some will make it while others will not."

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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Immigration case: Trump can stop people in Mexico, and prevent them from applying for asylum, because they haven't *arrived* in the US. Alito calls the case "straightforward" but Soto's dissent explains that standing two feet into Mexico shouldn't allow Trump to deprive people of human rights.

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Here is Sotomayor, in dissent, explaining the dire consequences of today's decision in Otro Lado. The government may now circumvent a vast range of laws protecting asylum-seekers by simply blocking their entry at the border. An insane loophole to open up. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

The Court today holds that the Executive Branch may
circumvent all these mandatory procedures by having U. S.
immigration officers stand at the border and physically
block noncitizens from setting a foot onto U. S. soil. They
may do so even if the asylum seeker is at the threshold of a
port of entry designated to receive all noncitizens who seek
entrance into the country. Even if the port of entry has ample capacity to inspect that person, including an available
asylum officer trained to process asylum applications. Even
if the asylum seeker is certain to be persecuted, or killed, if
she is turned away.

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Carlos A. Pittella @pittella.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Such a wonderful event. Thank you for framing these memories, Jenny! 🙏

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Jenny Wong @jenwithwords.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Thursday night, I got to attend the final book launch stop for @mishasolomon.bsky.social’s stunning poetry collection ‘My Great-Grandfather Danced Ballet’ with guest readers @pittella.bsky.social, @effervescentvoid.bsky.social, and Bret Crowle! Congratulations, Misha!!!

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