Mrs. Jones

As most have said, it's a song about a prostitute's botched abortion, but it's so surreal and layered that it's difficult to make sense of it.

The key to understanding the song I think is to realize that there's not really a narrative; it's all dialogue coming from several people in different contexts, and Courtney "plays" the roles of each of them. She uses her voice differently from stanza to stanza and sometimes even between lines—sometimes she whispers, other times she screams as though in excruciating pain; even the musical arrangements themselves shift accordingly.

The primary context is an operating room where the woman is receiving the abortion, probably under some sort of sedation, which accounts for the blurred and confusing trajectory of the song.

"Sorry man, sorry, sorry, I've got a bad eye, I shouldn't have looked at it," --The woman reacting to the overhead medical lamp as she lies on the operating table.

"You want her on the bed with her legs wide open and eyes all spread" --Omniscient narrator describing the scene, in which the doctor wants the woman

"Sorry man, I got a gut, slit me. Fuckin' ran away with my abortionist. My little wry black demonologist, the knife they used to, to gut my face in, has been out stabbing baby angels in" --Obvious references to being pregnant, and the woman going to the abortionist. "The knife they used to gut my face in has been out stabbing baby angels in" could be from the perspective of the unborn child whose face was "gutted" during the procedure; the same knife is being used to stab other "baby angels."

"The sky is narcotic with blackjack bones, oh, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, my virus is raging and it's breaking my bones" --The perspective of the woman on the operating table experiencing the narcotizing effects of sedatives to dull the pain that is "breaking her bones." Mrs. Jones is ostensibly the nurse.

"Die, survive, I will follow you down the sick drain when I lean on the sink" --Referring to the flushing of the fetus down a drain. This is again from the perspective of the woman, who possibly feels guilt and wants to "follow" her unborn child as it is flushed down the sink.

"Your night-blooming sickle cell, your night-blooming sickle cell" --The doctor referring to the fetus, which resembles the curve of a sickle cell

"Carry it away, get it away, get it away" --The woman, begging the doctor to get it out of her sight

"Look into the bloodroot, you suicide bitch, it takes an hour like you to make me wanna live" --Omniscient narrator commenting on the scene, suggesting the woman look at her unborn child (the "bloodroot" is another fetus reference)

"Sister ectoplasma, she's incredulous. Just like a pro, she takes off her dress, and she kicks you down in her snow white pumps. But just remember that it was me who found the lump" --A flashback to the conception of the child. The woman, a prostitute, taking off her clothes and kicking the man down in her "snow white pumps." The finding of the "lump" is another obvious reference to her discovering she was pregnant.

"Aaay, aaay, aaaay, aaayayyayyayy, shit! Shit! Shit!" --Screams from the woman as she pulled back to the reality of the current situation, experiencing the agonizing pain of the abortion.

"East is east and west is west and mine was you and mine was the best" --Not sure what this exactly means, but it's a Rudyard Kipling reference.

"Breathe..." --The nurse and/or doctor asking the ostensibly dying woman to breathe

Panting, then: "I really, don't ask me again..." --The woman, struggling to breathe

"Don't ever talk to me like that again" --The nurse or doctor, sternly admonishing her screams and language