My first marriage
saw an array
of hand-knit sweaters
from My Beloved Mother-in-law
Peter’s Mother
Who clothed Me in fuzzy lavender
bold black and white and red
thalo green with purple grapes
and close-fitting short-sleeved
peachy butterflies
Today in Roseway Manor
Eye gave Eva cream for Her Hands
and She clasped Them together
happily
and I remembered
I Am
My Own Bed Partner:
Me, My Self & Eye
Shall I have a Menage a Trois
after marrying twice?
First for Mother & Children
Second for Sex & Money
I Am
Single now with a refrain
“At night, alone, I marry the bed*”
*from The Ballad of The Lonely Masturbator by Anne Sexton 1969
My !3! Children
R as strong & beautiful
as the flock of Herons
EYE just witnessed landing
on the heights of My Scrub Spruce
horizon
Maria’s Death was Accidental
No One was to Blame
Not Even God
Eye Dance My Dance
Eye Write My Right
Eye Paint My House
Eye Walk My Walk
And Eye Have My Ultimate Companion
Eye have painted The World
Blue
on the anniversary
of My First Date
with My Children’s Father
when We picked strawberries
and drank champagne
and imagined
living
in Nova Scotia
is the 31st anniversary
of My Marriage
to The Father of My Three Children —
and a Good Father He is.
It was a day like today:
Still, Hot and Sublime
There is a place for Marriage
in amongst the confessions
of many — The Vow
and if You break it
You’re in trouble.
My First Vow was “until Death”
and The Death was My Mother’s —
My Second
I don’t remember voicing
and the wedding itself
was an abomination.
My Divorcing Husband
has allowed Me to become
The Social Outcast
Who walks My expansive beach alone
Who sleeps with
The Virginal Banana
Who reads Her Verse
dressed like a vamp
while He refuses to ask
“How did it go?”
Eye have in my possession
the implement of destruction:
the blue and white iron
belonging to My First Husband
wielded by His Former Live-in Girlfriend
a dancer
to whack Him on His Hip
while hot
to leave a permanent scar
of polka dots
and The Man’s Story
of “Bad PMS”
Joanna Gilman Hyde 