Joanna Gilman Hyde

April 26, 2025

The Ships Galley, Shelburne, NS

10:07 pm

After getting up

w the cats @ 4:00 in the morning,

I went back to sleep

& for some peculiar & unknown reason

I dreamt of a caucasian mustached man

standing in the doorway

of my mother’s kitchen in Valley Cottage

who had an affliction:

a nearby friend declared that this man

“Was Peppered With Penises”

& that he, The Man, was prepared

to show me his hidden deformity

(despite another forthcoming declaration

that he did have his NORMAL one)

so he, The Man, pulled his pants down

& looking up

stood in the pose of a model

with one arm bent upward

& then lay down

somewhere beside my mother’s cupboard

to have me inspect

& count (if I wanted to)

his numerous & varied penises

each with it’s own characteristics,

when they, the penises,

(which were mostly little, some

shorter than others)

began to move, to gravitate

into line formation, like sides of a team

& lo & behold,

they, the penises,

began to open each their own eye

& talk.