Nikita Nelin

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Nikita Nelin was born in Moscow, Russia and immigrated to the U.S in 1989. He has lived in Austria and Italy, and has traveled the U.S extensively. He received the Sean O’Faolain prize for short fiction, the Summer Literary Seminars prize for nonfiction, and the Dogwood Literary Prize in Nonfiction, as well as being chosen as a finalist for the Restless Books Immigrant prize and the Dzanc Books prize. His work has been published in print and online. Nikita has conducted research through the Harriman Institute as well as translation through Yale Press, and has written on the convergence between fringe and at-large cultural trends for the Hannah Arendt Center. He holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, is a 2019 Associate Fellow at The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, and is a member of the Southern Experience Collective.

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04/13/20 Ouch, That’s Hot

April 13, 2020 / Nikita Nelin

If there was a magic word

I could say,

which lifted this spell

would you believe me?

If it could all be brought back

to the casual

uncertainties

before this mess,

would you buy stock?

They were already dying,

these pale white riders from the stalk of John Smith.

And we were always going to arrive at the fire,

some better

and some less so

dressed.

Well, what now,

as we await our invitation to proceed onward?

If you want me to walk over melting glass,

you’ve got to give me a better reason than the economy.

Don’t get me wrong,

that there is fear enough to move my feet,

but I just know I’ll get stuck only half way along

not ever really there,

can’t turn back,

and without much of anything calling me across

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