Joanna Gilman Hyde

"Good Morning, World!"

Month: July, 2013

AFTER THE EMBRACE

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:00pm

Face To Face

with My Favourite Psychiatrist

I stated The Obvious:

“I can fulfil Your Ultimate Fantasy —

didn’t You say You wanted to be

Canada’s Greatest Psychiatrist?”

“That was just a manner of speaking –“

“Are You being Honest?”

“Joanna, You’re standing on The Edge

of a Cliff, looking down –“

I fell headlong into a morass

of psychosis, medication

& the strongest physical desire

I had ever known

for The Little Doctor

Who had embraced Me

on October 22, 1993 

GULL SUPPER

The Hawk West Desk Window 6:20pm

We’re going to have A Pet Gull

I bet

One stood beside The Deck

right after supper

so I threw Him a heel of My Bread

in torn-off pieces

He kept catching

in mid-toss

ARMOURED BIRD

The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:22pm

I just saw A Bird

atop The Scraggly Apple

(had time to get the binoculars)

I could swear It had A Wing

Its Left Wing

& Tail

hammered out of Silver

like armoured plating

beneath Its iridescent plumage

SHE FELL IN LOVE

The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:35pm

She Fell In Love

with The Little Man

on October 22, 1993

when She felt a compulsion

to SAY something

& She didn’t know what IT would be

At Eight in the morning She went

to The Hospital where He was working

She asked for Him at The Front Desk

Another Doctor was suggested

but She refused, saying She would wait

after twenty minutes

She was directed to a little room

an examining room

where He stood before Her with folded arms

“I have something I must say –”

He tried to cut Her off by saying

“These things have happened before –”

“But I am compelled to say IT.  I must say IT —

Would You believe Me, would You accept

What I have to SAY?”

He nodded & said, “Yes, go ahead, tell Me –”

Her Arms lifted up & out to both sides

as She was seated:

“There Is A God”

as She rose to His Unfolded Embrace

 

THE SUMMATION VERSION

The Hawk Deck 5:35pm

After The Shower Of Lights

The Little Girl was not So Little

She had been struck over The Head

by A Very Giant Object

attached to God

& He wasn’t going to let Her away

so easily

That Night

after relatives and The Nurse Do Do

took Her to the hospital

where Her Mother had died

four days earlier

The New Big Girl was seen by A Little Man

Who asked all the right questions

& ordered a room

In That Darkened Hospital Room

in Shelburne, Nova Scotia

March 31st, 1993

The Little Girl who was no longer Little

saw floating in The Darkness

a loose brown cylindrical mass

which slowly opened from its centre

to reveal nothing less

than The Meaning Of Life

couched within a Joke of such magnitude

that only God could have thought It up:

You Are The Reason For Schizophrenia

She puzzled over this and questioned Her Sanity

& decided that if She could question Her Sanity

She was not “Insane”

The next morning, April Fool’s Day, The Little Man

came into Her Room

& as She tried to assume some explanation

as to what had befallen Her

The Little Man stood at the foot of Her Bed

& said, “You won’t find anything about this in any medical text books

but some people who have had these kinds of experiences

are called Seers.”

She Fell In Love With Him

THE SIGN

The Tomato-coloured Couch 3:10pm

Once there was a little girl

whose mother died from a brain tumour

& the little girl didn’t sleep for four days

On the fourth day, March 31st 1993

the little girl looked for a sign

that she was going to be al-right

& the phone rang —

a nurse from the hospital was calling

to see if the little girl was al-right

& when the little girl said:

“DoDo, I Don’t Know How I Am”

The Nurse said She Would Come Right Over

The Little Girl hung up the phone

& went into Her Mother’s Kitchen

(but She doesn’t remember why)

whereupon She was struck

with the realization of an all-knowing

all-seeing Presence

She didn’t know what had just happened

so She went back to the daybed

where She had been trying to sleep

& as She sat, was sitting

The Cathedral Ceiling above

suddenly filled with Silver Streaks

of Light

Showering Down Upon Her

as She Cried Out

Oh My God!

OH MY GOD!

OH MY GOD!”

 

SOBEY’S

The Tomato-coloured Couch 12:45pm

Sobey’s is a home-grown grocery operation

with A Parking Lot

as one of the most innocent

& unassuming

public spaces

in existence

(at least around here)

Unsuspecting Shoppers

push Their Full Carts to Their Cars

push Empty Carts back

to The Cart Corral

Which says “In The Event

of An Emergency

Gather Here”

What is Sobey’s 

preparing

for?

I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:00pm

I Can Do Whatever I Want

I Can Write Anything

I Feel

I Can Write “I”

A Million Times

& Disregard That Man’s Word “ego”

Cancel It Right Out

I Know The Meaning Of Life:

I Have My Own Private God

A Beautiful Dark-haired Woman

Who Told Me In My Right Ear

“You Know

The Meaning Of Life

& So You Are A Star —

So Go To Sleep”

RED WHITE & BLACK

The Hawk Family Room 3:50pm

I follow A Digital Signal, Sign

first seen stuck on a banana peel

a square black & white intricacy

a computer tag for scanning

(My Daughter assures Me)

seen today blown up

on a floor to ceiling disaster-relief poster

at The Canadian Red Cross

lending unit

where I helped My Ex-Mother-In-Law

borrow supplies

for Her Husband’s Hospital Homecoming

tomorrow

when Dr Wilson says Mo

can be released

NAKED AS I WRITE

The Hawk West Desk Window 11:00pm

Over Seven Billion Human Hearts

are beating away —

some for the last time

some for the first —

how can Their Rhythms

be harnessed

for the awaited

Destiny of The Divine:

The Emblem of Far-reaching Truth

& Prosperity

of Our Organism?