It’s hyperreal –

by Marina Kazakova

It's hyperreal -

the August morning in Brussels:

black curls beneath the wispy clouds,

ink eyelashes and

fluffy eyebrows

brushing soft asphalt -

a sleeping Roma guy

smiles

while dreaming,

perhaps, a funny cartoon,

threatens to disappear

half-starved, abandoned, doomed.

The voice of Brel

is filling the air:

“Ne me quitte pas” -

too sad to hear,

too sad

to bear

the hyperreal picture

of the blessed

left totally ‘à deux,’

with asphalt,

with dreams,

with Brel:

“I will offer you

pearls made of rain”…

* * * * *

Marina Kazakova (b. Gorky, 1983) is a writer, poet and audio-visual artist in Belgium. Published internationally in magazines and journals (Three Rooms Press' Maintenant, AntiNarrative Journal, Crannog), Marina is a frequent performer. She has been shortlisted at different poetry/film-poetry competitions and was awarded various prizes. She is author of verse novel Tishe...Piano, the film adaptation of which was shortlisted for International Short Film Festival Leuven 2013, Miami Indie Wise Festival 2018, XpoNorth Festival 2018, and got ‘The Best Narrative Short’ Award at the International Film Festival behalf Savva Morozov in Moscow in 2015. Her literature works deal to a large degree with confrontation with the past and explore the challenges posed both by memory and grief. In addition to poetry, Marina has written essays and articles for such publications as The Word Magazine (Brussels), Culturetrip. com, Seanema.eu. Marina holds a Master in Public Relations and in Transmedia. Currently, she is Communications Officer at ‘Victim Support Europe’(Brussels) and working on her practice-based PhD in Arts “Lyric Film-Poem. A research on how the unique characteristics of lyric poetry can be expressed in film” at Luca School of Arts (KULeuven).