East of Mercy

 East of Mercy

 

What you know is that sad house,

Walls painted yellow, floors brown,

Floors and windows the stifling

Oil base, still sticky a year

After the orgy of brush

Strokes and cheap beer, low Quaalude.

What you know is cold downstairs,

Dry and blistering upstairs.

Skynyrd Second Helping blared

The night you gave a marine

A beating in the living

Room after a wine party,

A dumb fight for wrong reasons.

What you know is the stove top,

Only one burner that worked,

Shower with slugs on the walls,

Monopoly Game that sat

The coffee table, missing

Boardwalk and Park Place, instead

Columbia, what you know.