Sundress Reads: Review of Surgery of a Star

Margarita Serafimova’s Surgery of a Star (Staring Problem Press, 2020) is a collection of sweet nothings exchanged between lovers in the form of ethereal poems that can easily take the readers to the moon or smother them between bedsheets. Readers get a clear sense throughout that the poems are a love letter to someone the speaker deeply and passionately loves. Serafimova shares details of the uniqueness of their bond and its otherwordly nature, while not shying away from documenting how love walks hand in hand with feelings of possession and hurt. 

The encompassing theme of this collection is a fierce love that feels effortless. In “I love you as the bird loves the seed,” Serafimova writes, 

This love intoxicates and takes over the speaker’s life, even if they sometimes feel a little ashamed of their most sensual thoughts. The speaker equates their “beautiful love, as dramatic as a change of the light” (Serafimova 23) to “radical looks of deer with wrung windpipes / in a storm of life” (Serafimova 25). There is no holding back from the fierce, electric passion that arises within the speaker whenever their lover is nearby.

Surgery of a Star also showcases the vulnerability with which the speaker gives themselves to a partner who reciprocates their intense love without hesitation. The speaker yearns to be the very best version of themselves for their partner, while at the same time allowing an intimate glance into all that is stowed away in their “heavy chest of life” (Serafimova 28). This strong sense of attachment leads the speaker to believe their feelings transcend what’s palpable, and that their common existence is allowed to exist outside of the space-time continuum as a result. In “Weeping: Clarinets,” Serafimova writes, 

This belief makes the speaker question their lover before they effectively start examining their connection to the physical world altogether. Their physical union gains a metaphysical component when compared to a meeting of spirits, and the speaker starts to believe that this all-encompassing love that feels as vibrant as life is its very origin. 

The magnitude of this special connection envelops the speaker in a cycle of deep feelings. For example, in “This tree surviving fall has been standing,” Serafimova confesses that they “have been falling, / and rising, leaves on its wind” (27), which introduces the reader to the volatility of the lovers. Furthermore, in “Fury”, the narrator very clearly declares “You belong to me. / (I belong to you.)” (36). Here the idea of possessiveness starts to take roots in the collection, as Serafimova describes the lover as someone that lives nestled in her words.

To read Serafimova’s work is to be invited into a familiar type of love that is explained in extraordinary ways, including its downfalls. Its ugly face is put on display with confessions of inflicted pain between the lovers, grounding the poems back to reality. However, whilst the speaker admits that this mutual branding of tears brings the lovers together instead of instilling the will to distance themselves from one other. Serafimova writes, “We passed through fires and through lights, / and today, we stand, / and something in you points to me… Here is how thick branches grow” (35). The speaker considers that the growing pains of love are necessary and that they create a solid foundation from which the relationship grows. This nuance to the work allows a glance at an attachment between two individuals that necessitates compromise to expand, setting it apart from what could be a merely superficial bond.

By opening up to their lover, the speaker allows herself to love freely, despite opening herself to get hurt in the process. Transcending both time and space, the speaker sees this as a worthwhile risk as when looks are exchanged: “and only our bodies are between us, / our  tenderness is a surgery of a star”(Serafimova 7). Ultimately, Serafimova succeeds in transmitting a sense of restlessness and sensual passion, guiding us through a cosmic journey of highs and lows, and all the while pinpointing the most important element of love—vulnerability.

Surgery of a Star is published by Staring Problem Press

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Ines Pinto (she/her) is from a small beach town near Lisbon, Portugal. She decided to leave those shores behind as she moved around Europe, eventually completing her master’s degree in International Politics. She dreams of a fairer world, so she worked in the non-profit sector to call for the end of corruption and dirty money flows before moving to New York to start a brand new adventure. She is also the proud mother of a spoiled cat named Louis, a certified multilingual Eurovision fan, and a reader with an appreciation for all genres.