The Tomato-coloured Couch 9:45am
Armed with My Arsenal
of X-Miss Tree ornaments
— 13 silver birds from Wilson’s —
— black balls from Walmart —
EYE spent twelve hours
trimming
& having fun
to complete My Play
from a table pedestal up
rooted
to The Silver Star strung
from The Cathedral Ceiling
suspended
The Hawk Deck 4:56pm
That beautiful rose light
is hovering over the ocean
I am waiting for The Moon
to rise —
M(EYE) Tree is up
— yet to be trimmed —
in honour of My Mother’s
Birthday, which
once every seven years or so
coincides
with American Thanksgiving
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 4:11pm
Bow-sawed and dragged
from The Scrub Spruce Forest Bog
I got M(EYE) Tree
but It wouldn’t fit
down the hall
to Come To Life
in The TV Room —
It’s laying on The Hawk Living Room Floor
dead as a doornail
& I had a Devil of a Time
getting It in
— severed one limb —
so far The Cats
are ignoring It
Spanish Moss & all
The Hawk Kitchen 10:33am
EYE will venture out
into The Cold Dark Woods
behind My Obstructive House
I will wear My Rubber Boots
& seek The Tree
of My Dreams:
an old dead branch
with Spanish Moss
& maybe bugs
I will saw it down
with My New Bow Saw
from Wilson’s
I will drag it in
to turn erect
in Hunter’s TV room
secured inside
a circular well
of the heaviest
Silver
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 5:55pm
The Moon said Hello
to Me as soon as I looked
He lit up My Clouds
The Hawk Kitchen 3:00pm
Bundled against the brazen squall of snow
I am stumped
after perusing over the roots —
root stems from The Drowned Forest
looking for branching sections
to string together somehow
like a spine
of bare limbs to make
an ad hoc
X-Miss Bush
My Own
this year — a dead array
for perhaps the cats
to climb — to hang
13 silver birds & even more plastic snow flakes
to deck the TV Room
with the barren interlocking
drift wood
stumps
which can only be piled, tangled
(not constructed / not drilled)
into a vertical heap
(very un-tree-like)
instead I will have to pinch
a dead spruce, whole
from beyond My Back Yard
& set it, bolt upright
in a front window
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:55pm
EYE was a Mummy once
wrapped in My intricate wrappings
I couldn’t see The Sky
for the sarcophagus
carved out with
M(EYE) LIFE STORY —
I lay in My Tomb
with My Innards preserved
and noblemen flocked
to see
My Grave
and to gaze at
My Holy Body
locked away
in stone
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 8:29pm
First & Foremost I am
A Human Being —
I come from the planet Earth
where I made My Self
from the mesh of molten rock
& the salt from endless waves.
I came to My Human Form
through My Mother, primarily
though My Father
gave Her Lie-sense.
I was born into a world
of tumult
@ The Exact Right Time
to become what I am Today:
A Woman Understood
The Hawk Queen Bed 7:36pm
“Where do you find truth?”
he asked just as she walked into
her living room
— she thought she might
make a poem
out of this
but was too
tired
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 9:22am
EYE woke this morning
to a sky of white
in the aftermath
of seeing My Halo
for most of yesterday
— I feel worn out
in My Heavy Grey Robe
with the radio overlapping
My Husband’s soccer
“and the shadow of the day
will embrace the world in grey –“*
Linkin Park
Joanna Gilman Hyde 