Too close

by Marina Kazakova

Too close

to keep the heart

rate down to hundred,

to keep the hands

straight,

to ropewalk

as nothing

is sitting in front of,

to play

indifferent,

to say what

is expected,

to eyeball

the other faces,

to not proceed

with stupid questions,

to restrict

the craving

to ropewalk

along your lips and

hair,

to whisper

to myself

the love letters,

to tremble

in the dark

when no one

cares,

when the night

is too close

to the body of

the sleepless ropewalker,

when the heart

dances along

the white sheets,

embraces the warm pillow,

jumps and laughs

inside the dream

where the olive tree

is too close

again

to

stop the dream

and to return

the ropewalker

back to the hungry hands

of one

busy morning

in Brussels.

* * * * *

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 on behalf of 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).