Nikita Nelin

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The Obligatory Bio in the 3rd-person:

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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03/18/20 RK

April 02, 2020 / Nikita Nelin

I’m so bored even the piano won’t talk to me.

It just sits there with a differential grin,

mocking my every attempt at conversation.

“Maybe I’ll burn you,” I say,

hoping at least to get some emotion out of it.

Nothing. Just a pile of wood with nice teeth.

“Fuck you piano. Them incisors are going yellow. I’m not taking you to the dentist.”

Nothing,

not even a wry note, off key.

It’s like we don’t know each other anymore,

like my mother had nothing to offer us

in those books she read loudly

as I sat in front of you

Learning to contemplate your navel.

“Fuck you, piano! How dare you not talk to me. Don’t you know I have employment? And… hahaha, I also have a key!”

Devious, this silence. Two can play this game. I’m gonna turn that lip down on your protest and forget it.

Uh……

Piano? Piano?!

Well shoot, now I miss even the affection of your silence

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