Claudia La Rocco

Mercy Kills

1.

The urban bush women stamp their feet

There is no waiting here

at the center of the red circle

 

They turn and turn

The red circle grins

 

Here is where we put in our coordinates

Here is where we bind his arms, strap him down

Here, once more and forever, we begin

 

2.

 

The status quo is affronted

He slumps

His limbs hang low

 

3.

 

The mark is irretrievable: an action in space

Everything we put down remains, just so

 

4.

 

The minotaur is full of errors

Terrors in the dark do not give him pause

But when she shakes out her hair

When she opens that ruined-teeth maw and hisses her sex down the corridors

 

5.

 

In the future, in the spaceship, gas jets thrusting below

Hard to find a toehold in zero gravity

Hard to begin to know

 

Only static on the console

She shakes out her skirts. She has something to show the others today. Unholy, it works its way.