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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03/31/20 Just a Walk, Nothing to See Here

April 02, 2020 / Nikita Nelin

You walked to the water

without leaving a note,

without argument

or expectations,

without time

sweeping your feet from the sand

like a kiss

in the morning

you walked to the water,

without measuring the distance

between me

and the sea

you walked

to the water

without your summer dress,

like a birthmark

on the earth

begging the moon

to accept your surrender

you walked to the water

without words

no discernable purpose

at all

or proclamation of causes

rights

or rituals,

outmeal still boiling

on the griddle,

the last bird of the bluehour

painting the sky indigo, lilac, and green,

an unexplored dream bating your lips,

without a hello

or goodbye,

by no prayer

or vengeance…

it’s not as strange

as it seems,

you walked

to the water

and returned with some tea.

I gotta stop fumbling

with your memories

like this.

They always come out

better than I remember.

I’m sorry

when I don’t tell you

all

that I see,

but you walked

to the water

and I feared

it wasn’t with me

and I watched in suspense from the window

as you showed me

how to be free

to the water and back,

the beginning

and end,

From the earth

to the sea

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