*
this is west of time
this is east of time
here you go south of time
there—north
north went south
east stayed
ezekiel stayed
isaac searched
iskal
iz skaly
out of the mountain comes the sun
before it goes off the rails
everyone searched for the sun
it had to be found
it had to be fine
before it went the other direction
who was abducted
a or b
kto ostalsya
who was stung by an osa
from the land of oz
ozverevshaya osa ne ostalas’
she left to the place where the sun didn’t stay
couldn’t stand staying
osa ist wespe
wespe on the western side
of the east-west axis
ax of time, ox of time
crash crash
ear and oar of time
es ist laut in der wüste
der zeit
offsite where all went
seeking isaac
iz oak
iz ovsa
iz voz
zov of time
call me
*
excuse my french
excuse my pronunciation
excuse my nuance
excuse my notion
excuse my ношение
карман my karma
excuse my package
only full package
take it or leave it
no more for today
they get snapped up very quickly
excuse my capacity
don’t excuse my city
it is fully to blame
excuse my fields
my gaps
don’t mind my presence
excuse my essence
my sense of
my nonsense
excuse my articulation
my circulation
you got the wrong gal
excuse my упал
свалился завалялся
excuse my supplies my compasses
excuse my direction my imagery my sideways
excuse my luggage my suitcase
to get a handle on
excuse my steps my desires my tires my fatigue
excuse, но не прощай
no walking without saying goodbye
excuse my conclusion my erasure my tool
pull up a stool, sit
that’s enough—now stand
widersteht! in a good state
excuse my thingness my physicality my emptiness
excuse my vessel my destiny
a tiny bit
excuse my list, round-up
excuse my leaning lingering lingerie
excuse my ups my downs in-betweens
excuse my twists wrists recordings
excuse my register my gesture my talk
excuse leaves and leaf прилив
excuse my longing my lounging my propeller
point fingers lay eyes on water
translate your sentence
into this utterance
*
i heard myself speaking
i heard myself
i heard myself speaking
i herded myself
i herded my-her-self my-him-self
my part of my-him-her-self spoke
i spoke of myself with a shady self
self-seal wasn’t possible
no salvation verfügbar
it enacted a fugue to a feige
i got myself some fatigue in hearing
heard no more, heard partially
no part after no part
it has parted me and left with some parts
i was departed among parts
they would not gather
they would build a would
a wooden wood with no forest there
i would not hear myself
i could not not have heard
i could have herded the hearing alone
who would have heard:
repeat after me
who would have passed by
the out post
who would have posted a brief
. out there
after hearing something left out
. alone
*These poems were originally published in dis tanz (Veliz Books, 2025).
INNA KRASNOPER is a Berlin-based poet and artist. She graduated from the Chto Delat Collective School of Engaged Art in Saint Petersburg and holds a BA in Dance, Context, Choreography from University of the Arts in Berlin. Her Russophone poetry collections include Нитки торчат (Loose Threads), published by the Voznesensky Center, and Дорогой человек (Dear Person), published by NLO. Her English-language poetry has appeared in her chapbooks Over Sight (Eulalia Books) and Sealed (Black Sunflowers Poetry Press), as well as in Annulet, Vestiges, Gulf Coast, Oversound, SAND, and elsewhere. Krasnoper’s first English-language poetry collection dis tanz was published by Veliz Books in 2025.
