Melissa Matthewson

Melissa Matthewson's essays have appeared in Guernica, DIAGRAM, American Literary Review, River Teeth, The Rumpus, Bellingham Review, Mid-American Review and elsewhere. She teaches at Southern Oregon University and owns an organic vegetable farm. Her first book of nonfiction, Tracing the Desire Line, is forthcoming from Split Lip Press in the fall of 2019.

Aren’t There Any Beautiful Things in Your Own Country?

by Melissa Matthewson

after Susan Sontag

In which she answered (1977): “Yes. No. Fewer.” [note]Susan Sontag, from “Unguided Tour”[/note]
In which I answer (2018): “Yes. No. Also, fewer.”

I want to think there are/were beautiful things in the country I grew up: in the chaparral hills of California, at the border of two countries, where a line on the map draws a curtain between the US and Mexico.
If you go, you should take foot if you can, though horses could be adventurous, cars more likely.
Is it still there?
Yes.
But not for long.
When you arrive, take off into the hills with heart and fortitude.
Were you happy there?
Sometimes.
I lived for the auburn-haired boys who played baseball and came from the east, and the mountains. Nature as it was then. (More …)