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
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.
Learn more about the Veterans Repertory Theater here.
Nice.