We are in the river now. We are in the river now. The sand is on my tongue. Blood under my nails. I’m bleeding under my nails. We are in the river. Between my legs. They are busy with this woman. They are busy with this woman now. They are busy with this woman . . .
“What do you want, Eva?”
“What?”
“What do you want?”
“Nothing you can give.”
An owl sucks my blood. I am bleeding underneath my nails. An old owl sucks my blood. He gives me fruit in my palms. We enter the river again . . . together.
They are doing with this woman. See. They are doing with this woman. See what they are doing with this woman.
Last night she got in the bed with me, Davis. I knocked her out, but I don’t know how long I’m going to keep knocking her out . . .
“Tell me when it feels sweet, Eva. Tell me when it feels sweet, honey.”
I leaned back, squeezing her face between my legs, and told her, “Now.”
Beacon Press
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 1976 by Gayl Jones
First published as a Beacon paperback in 1987
by arrangement with Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved
Text design and composition by Daniel Barks
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eva’s Man / Gayl Jones.
(Celebrating Black Women Writers)
I. Title. II. Series.
[PS3560.0483E9 1987 813’54 86—47751
ISBN 978-0-8070-2899-5 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8070-2904-6 (ebook)
