"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"
September 12, 1976
INTERIOR—NIGHT—Panning shot of MACNOLIA's bedroom on her death bed. The melody seeps through her room Like a bad man's walk, something sexy In one step, something sinister In the other. The bed's bones creak as Death slips under the sheets. Nightstands At either side of her headboard hold Her combs, while the sun cries mercy At 7pm. She looks up scared From her book's curled, yellow pages As the room fills with staccato breaths From Adderley's reed. My eyes melt Under my tongue's dry flame as I stand At the door of her room. She sees Me now and looks out again. Her lips Curl like dry, burning leaves into A smile and her fingers trace half notes In the air. Am I water drawn For your bath? Am I the needle's cry Across the album's grooves? Am I This song's moan over your moist body?
A. Van Jordan is author of two books of poems, Rise (winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award) and M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (to be published in 2004 by Norton). This Ohio native teaches at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
