AUNT HELEN’S SKY LIGHT*
by Joanna Gilman Hyde
October 5th, The Hawk Queen Bed 10:40pm
I have installed a family
of stuffed animals & dolls
in a finished basement window
in order to unpack
dusty cardboard boxes
flattened for recycling —
I have placed My Brother’s Anne of Green Gables
as The Baby Sitter
over hard-headed “twins” from the 30’s
My Stuffed Bear “Bear Bear”
in a bright red mantel over a pink bath robe
a squirrel to represent My Mother’s Presence
& a hand-made cloth doll from China
–
*Grandfather Bobby Hyde’s sister Helen who lived in a studio apartment in NYC, drinking gin in the morning next to her full-sized loom and talked to me of a family who lived in her sky light.