January 27 -- Alexis Fancher

STAYING PUT by Alexis Rhone Fancher

after Edward Hopper’s painting, A Woman In The Sun, 1961  http://collection.whitney.org/object/1337

He paints me naked in an empty room. 

Like I need nothing. Like he needs me. 

I’m his type.

High tits. Lean shadow,

blond hair falling 

past my shoulders.

A long drink of water.

There is no escape.

But the window to my left is a promise.

Wide open. Green hills.

"Hold still!" he says.

So I stare at the painting on the wall. 

Another landscape, this one contained 

by a white mat, black frame;

it, too, allows for dreaming. But it only

goes so far, then hits the wall. Like him. 

Only so far before he drops off-grid and 

disappears into the canvas. No 

wonder I can’t stay still.

The room holds little. A bed, my shoes

abandoned underneath. A pack of

cigarettes. My restless heart. A rectangular shaft

of light pours in from an open, second window and

the breeze plays with my hair. 

"Fix it!" he says.

I tuck the wisp of hair behind my right ear, 

just the way he likes it, then put my hand 

back where it belongs.

He says his favorite thing is painting sunlight 

on the side of a house.

"So why paint me?" I ask.

"So you’ll stay put.”