The Mercy Seat

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds or Johnny Cash – The Mercy Seat
from Tender Prey (1988) or American III: Solitary Man (2000) /black romantic/
((“And the mercy seat is waiting. And I think my head is burning. And in a way I’m yearning.to be done with all this measuring of truth.An eye for an eye.A tooth for a tooth.And anyway I told the truth,And I’m not afraid to die.Into the mercy seat I climb.My head is shaved, my head is wired.And like a moth that triesto enter the bright eye,I go shuffling out of life,Just to hide in death awhile.And anyway I never lied.”
To be here waiting, and waiting, and waiting with any more than this extremely limited human contact, with the rush and hustle of human society, surely the mind wouldn’t be able to cope with all the torments and stresses; lose its hold on reality, and swim toward the seas of insanity. To be here waiting, with nothing but grey walls and faded graffiti to tear attention from my lurking, immutable doom. With no distraction from the view at the end of the tunnel. Surely the overfocused mind will press too hard and shatter and fall. And fly the fetid skies of madness.))