Mercury Dressing Hits Bookstore Shelves Today

J. D. McClatchy’s new collection of poetry, Mercury Dressing, is in stores today. The 112-page collection, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, is published by Knopf and available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore.

Mercury Dressing’s title poem, originally published in The New Yorker, follows after the jump…

To steal a glance and, anxious, see
Him slipping into transparency—
The feathered helmet already in place,
Its shadow fallen across his face
(His hooded sex its counterpart)—
Unsteadies the routines of the heart.
If I reach out and touch his wing,
What harm, what help might he then bring?
But suddenly he disappears,
As so much else has down the years…
Until I feel him deep inside
The emptiness, preoccupied.
His nerve electrifies the air.
His message is his being there.

February 10, 2009, 9:11am ·