"Odessa"

by Anthony Roberts

Somewhere in Odessa
there once lived a girl
named Inga Sovonova
a woman now
maybe she’s still there

When I met her
she was Soviet
not Ukrainian
everyone was Soviet then

Perestroika and Glasnost
made the impossible real

An exchange program
brought her and her friends
from Odessa to Baltimore
from Bagritsky’s February
to Poe’s Nevermore

From her I learned
that couples in Odessa
walk with pinkies intertwined
she told me this
as she linked hers with mine

From me she learned
what a Mohawk felt like gelled
how to hide Levis
In the lining of a suitcase
we shared her first cheesesteak
American television fascinated her

A weeklong teenage iron curtain romance
that ended with her departure
letters continued to be exchanged
until they slowed then stopped

The last one
maybe I was 18
hastily written
life at University
a recording of Vladimir Vysotsky

I was on my way
to earning a blue cord and jump wings
Odessa was as far away as my own home
all I knew was Benning and then Bragg
but when no one was looking
I would put on my headphones
turning up Vysotsky

I still do today

Now in Odessa
no one is Soviet
you are Russian or Ukrainian
I wonder if she’s still there
with perhaps husband and children

Is there a samovar?
is it the one she showed me
in the photo of her family
mother father and brother
the silver podstakannik shining

Where is she now
Has she fled her home
do her son and husband
remain to fight
does she remain as well
alongside her daughter
filling bottles
with fuel and styrofoam

How will she see her city
when this is over
I think of Odessa
I think of Inga Sovonova
and I pray 

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Anthony Roberts is a veteran of Baltimore and Afghanistan. He currently lives in New Jersey in a home with beautiful views and interlocking fields of fire.

Listen to our Savage Wonder episode with him here.

He is the author of the Pushcart Prize-nominated Pigtown and The Clearing Barrel.

You can follow him here.

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Learn more about the Veterans Repertory Theater here.