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.