The Meadow Annual Literary Arts Journal 2020

Dear Eve Joanne Mallari I found your postcard today and studied the image more closely. I couldn’t decide whether to respond by ekphrasis, epistle, or both. Hopper had a knack for nostalgia: the painting is called New York Movie , but the light points to a woman in the wing, resting her chin on one hand. I want a large replica of this painting so that I can stand beneath the same warm yellow light. I want to tell her to throw her stilettoes away, then walk up the stairs to the lobby. Meet me at the subway station, I’d say, and we’ll ride—stay in transit a few hours, consider all the ways to delay arrival. Do I coax or hinder arrival by writing towards it? This moment on the page or that moment in a painting: they are subway platforms inviting us to consider the rest before the note. I imagine the woman’s name is Ruth, and she dreams of singing for the Met: even in grief, she leaves room for her diaphragm to expand. She stands with her back to the wall, and the plaster becomes a guide for alignment. At any time, she might lift her head, breathe deep and low, then sing into the dark. 196 The Meadow