Last Night in the Country

The painter posted a picture of a dark sky 
with a dark tree in it. The caption read: 
“last night in the country.” A statement 
that is also a question. Early, in quarantine, 
she made tiny abstract paintings, dashed 
at her dining room table each night. 
Did she mean it was her last night 
in the country before returning to her 
workspace in town? Or, did she mean this 
was a picture she had taken last night, 
and not the night before? And not 
during the day. Did she mean she 
was leaving the country, this country, 
her body, her head, her family, and this, 
a picture of her last night as 
an American? She did not leave 
the country, this country, with travel 
severely restricted. She did not go 
anywhere out of this world that day, 
that night, but, maybe, in paint, in and 
out of her head, in and out of her hand, 
in and out of her house, in and out of 
her body, her lover’s, her pet’s, her fields, 
her knowing. 

       for Louise Fishman (1939-2021)

ELAINE SEXTON

Elaine Sexton’s fourth collection of poetry is Drive (Grid Books, 2022). Her poems, reviews, essays, and visual art have appeared widely in journals including American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Art in America. A critic, maker, and micro-publisher, she teaches at the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute. Learn more at elainesexton.org.