Vox Populi
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Elizabeth Mercurio: Three Poems
Words in a Night Jar
I pray to the dwindling fire, take my tea with cream & grief.
How cold my cheeks still are.
How round the snow thrush on the back deck.
I remember the sticky-face child, who always took too much jam.
She is still here with me. I broke, then remade her.
The sparrow is here too. Outside the kitchen window,
he visits me with wings dipped sweet in wild air —
—
The Consolation of Flowers
I planted fresh roses in pots on the patio today
―a new ruby color
showered with the late
rain of a Florida summer storm.
Years have passed
since I last tried to take my life.
The wintering is over.
I leave behind the roses,
I leave behind the body,
the river refused to keep.
—
Doll
she sighs
when I take her out
the same dumb doll
who bleeds for me
she has one blue eye
the other is a hole
nothing is good about her
she is disfigured
her plastic limbs
scoured clean
with an iv line
she doesn’t like me
she says terrible things
I feed her just the same
when she is done
I carry her back
to the bone yard where
the moon glitters
in her guise of white
her surface is darkness
I am not alone
a woman is here
she is blonde like me
strong as hell
miss world
misunderstood
her arm says let it bleed
together we scream
together we bury
that fucking doll
every single time
Copyright 2022 Elizabeth Mercurio
“Words in a Night Jar” appeared in The Wild Word. “The Consolation of Flowers” and “Doll” appeared in the chapbook Doll (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2019)
Elizabeth Mercurio is assistant editor at the Lily Poetry Review. She lives in Florida.
Vox Populi 
They leave me breathless—these poems. The suite so perfectly placed with respect to each other. Where in Florida I wonder. I want to bring her to Vero Beach fora Lenten Poetry and Organ Concert so she can leave a whole sanctuary full of us breathless.
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Thanks, Sean.
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Wow! Just wow!
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What a wonderful & most welcome surprise to see my former student published in my most favorite VOX POPULI! Bravo to you, Beth –and thank you for these strong, moving, clear and ardent poems!
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Laure-Anne, I didn’t know that Beth was your former student. Brava! She’s a wonderful poet, and it’s an honor to publish both of you.
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