Eye once pretended
to be a grandmother
to a giant dog of white
Eye bought him toys
for children —
to add to his delight —
a shark of pink
a little seal
a whale for a babe
These toys of fluff
were thrown to him
destroyed for his avail
Looking east I see
The Sleeping Giant
lolling in the lake
and at my feet
a stream hushes
the early morning lights
of three ships
nestled before it
On May 8, 2017
I completed a beautiful painting
The first in many years
and the first of its type
with applied 3 dimensional objects
— these were silver butterflies —
emerging from a seething mass of black
Chaos
against a smattering of cherry red
and lime green
with one silver winged symbol of freedom
Unscathed
ornamenting the upper right hand space
but for last night’s jostling
upheaval
of failed marriage
lonely occupancy
in my house stuffed
with my subsequent outpouring of art
The silver butterfly, the escapee
is broken now
with one half a wing
glued beside it
never to be replaced
Joanna Gilman Hyde 