Speak Lithuanian with a Few Words Night (nakvoti)—
A child spends the night skimming milk she did not have in Germany during the war. Weighted lashes speak years caged in Chicago’s displaced hind quarters— smell the stockyard stench of slaughtered cattle. Kerchief your nose with a wooden clothespin, disinfect Halsted street cars and bus fumes that choke a woman displaced once more to an
unfinished (nebaigtas) Ohio home (namas). —Clarissa
Jakobsons’ Lithuanian parents fled Russian Communism during the 1940’s.
She was born during World War 2 in Germany, lived in Austria, Illinois,
and Missouri, but settled in Ohio. Her father was captured and placed
in Hitler’s concentration camps and Stalin’s gulag. Artist, poet, and
associate editor of the Arsenic Lobster Poetry Magazine, Clarissa
instructs art and writing classes at Cuyahoga Community College,
Cleveland. A popular reader of her poems in the states as well as in
Europe, she is widely published. In Concert with Apollo’s Fire
March 13, 2010, Severance Hall Concert*
Cellophane candy wrappers cease fidgeting as the audience takes a final breath. Elbows settle in the upper balcony
scrunched tight between seats. Quiet. Calm. Binoculars pass hand-to-hand. Men spread eagle knees to the back of our seats.
Sergei Babayan touches keys of old. Coughs checkmate each movement as he lifts his head side-to-side,
his fingers weave golden strands, directing violins. The patrons loved Mozart as Severance Hall dreams of a past when life was simple
like home baked bread with churned butter. But, you too, Mozart, ran out of funds. Striking notes ring enchant the butterflies aflutter.
I can almost touch the ceiling’s gold leaf. Allegretto, my fingers relax their grip as Sergei digs deep into circling arms
that pause before speaking. Crescendo. He leads us like sheep. Orchid petals fall into our hands. —Clarissa Jakobsens
Concert Note: The
antique German Bluthner piano chosen for this concert developed
technical problems due to Ohio’s dry winter. The instrument is made of
European wood and was accustomed to a mild, humid climate. Therefore,
Babayan performed on a light, transparent Steinway concert grand.
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