Painted Reaction

by Joanna Jackson

 

I sat in silent contemplation, unsure of how to put words to emotion. I am not so equipped with words. My skill is more in color, paint to canvas.
And so I set forth to describe a view that I could have painted to express my feelings towards, “Guests of the Nation,” by Frank O’Connor
It is a landscape. Two lands.
At first sight you emerge in a field of yellow, iridescent paint, a warm glow.
There is no turmoil, this is bright, clear, alive.
Let your eye draw in closer a pond? A river?
It’s hard see, a bog in view.
Not brown not blue, deep red, solid, still.
The bullets are few, just one, two.
Up above the sky is dark, we are at the end.
One sheds tears, another will pray,
The last will remember this painting, every day.