The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:35pm
She was My Little Girl
My Masterpiece of Perfection
The Adorable Child
I have only in photographs
separated from Me
while I was ill
NOW — She is off
from Miami Beach
to British Columbia
leaving another heart
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:48am
Listen to Our Ocean
out across Our Land
It sings Its rhythmic waves
in chimes of soothing rush
The push and pull
of a distant shore
against an open window
delights Me more
for a shallow sleep
than dreams I have in store
The Hawk West Desk Window 7:48pm
There Shimmers A Silver Sky
to thank Me for My smallest
of tasks — a sewing job
on My Husband’s pants
and the careful look
Eye took — lingeringly
at My Grandmother’s
needle book
with a yellow cover
& eight red wool pages
enclosed with a hand made clasp
to go inside
My Strawberry Painted
Sewing Box
The Hawk Laundry Room 1:47pm
I bought A Purple Bottle
today of lavender laundry wash
with My Famous Silver Rays
on the label
& announced to My Husband
for all of Sobey’s to hear:
“I am a consumer on the march —
My Spending Practices are watched
My Tastes are recorded
for The Fashions of The Times
for The Big Buy-out
of Earth’s Silver Load!”
May 15, 2015 The Hawk Queen Bed 9:42pm
Women are bleeding
all over The Globe
having babies and abortions
I am so tired
I could sleep for a thousand years
& wake to A New Day
of Knowing
& wake to A New Long Day
The Hawk Queen Bed 8:48pm
In The Jordan Bay House
Howard and Eye were put to bed
at 8 o’clock
with late evening sun
pouring in over the ridge
to the west of our Grandparents’
It came through uncurtained windows
as We lay in Our Beds
tired from Our Days
at the shore
or helping in Granmamma’s garden
or Pappy’s workshop —
those were the domains
of Our Grandparents while Our Mother
worked on Her Island House
half a harbour away
where She would sleep
forever when She died
with sheep walking over
Her Grave
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:30pm
I have had a love affair
with a diamond ring —
well, with its Inclusion —
I nestled It, The Pale Arrow
in the crook of My Arm
for weeks it seemed
until today when I put it, the ring
back in its blue box
for that day
when I need again
to feel perfection
symbolized in The Distorted Gleam
The Hawk Portico 2:22pm
Hello My Question Mark Ring!
You’re back on My Right Middle Finger
from where You should
never have strayed
I Love You Question Mark Ring
with Your enormous chunk of cut quartz crystal
& Your lower level of twenty-four diamonds
shaped for Your Name
I am proud of You
& All You Represent:
My Fortitude
My Grace
My Happiness of Place
The Question is merely
for Those Who Do Not Know Me
for I open up to anyone
close
I open up for You
My Dearest Emblem of Faith
The Hawk Kitchen 8:07am
The Vibrancy of Silver
is awash across the water
filling My Kitchen
with bright rays of light
I wait for the coffee to steep
to write of My Days
here in the quiet
of My Sufficient Sleep
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 2:30pm
Oh if I had ever rode
inside a big yellow school bus
along the pristine coast
of Cape Sable Island
how much knowledge would
I have gathered?
Would I have married
a lobster fisherman
& had Five Children
all different
from My Own?
Would I have watched
Them board the bus
seeking its way through
the scrub spruce
beside the open ocean
turning to My Kitchen
& perhaps to My Pen?
Joanna Gilman Hyde 