Joanna Gilman Hyde

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 2:38pm

I crossed a short causeway

to PEI (Prince Edward Island)

only it was more like a small city

when I got there —

like Halifax

only tiny

and My Intention was to drive around

its perimeter

but I started talking to a group

of young urban people

who lived there

and asked

“Is there any place to dance?”

I didn’t get a specific answer

Next I was sitting

across from a black woman

who had ordered

some kind of Japanese food for Us —

tiny servings of rice  with sliced pickles

on toothpicks

and a sample of something with peanuts

in a Szechuan sauce

— I was hungry and it was not enough —

She was telling me

“Do You know there’s A Child

Who’s allowed to go on the bus alone —

guess how old She is?”

I blurted out “Two!”

“Try five or six months –”

and just as I was about to ask

if there was any kind of babysitter

I started to eat My Napkin

and woke up