Joanna Gilman Hyde

My lovely daughter Eliza

thinks Eye should take my art down

and repaint over my graffiti

in the livingroom and bedroom —

butt Eye like my graffiti

it doesn’t bother me

and Eye like my art

it fosters me.

Eliza thinks Eye should have dinner parties

and a garden

and Cousin Carol with the voice of reason

thinks Eye should have old people

over for tea

in a graffiti-less house

in a relaxing house

uncluttered by art.

My daughter thinks my house

is a microcosm of my life

butt Eye see my house

as a reflection of me —

besides, my lovely friend Darlene Louisa

likes my house

plastered with my work

and hers.

My life with Dr Blair is over

& what have I moved into?

Tales of Miss Winfield

the raven-haired beauty

who looks like Snow White

caught off guard

under the hands of a janitor

while she wore dresses from Reitman’s

as a teacher’s aide —

She quit her job

and went into a decline

rather than tell on him

and was brought down too

by a user boyfriend

who told her he would buy a ring

but never did —

Mature & married now

with two grown sons

her hair is salt & pepper

under a layer of dye

and she listens to her friends

one a hair dresser

and one who’s me

Eye see no silver today

Dripping its way across

My lonely ocean

Of calm contemplation

If Eye have one question

for my X Dr Blair

It’s why did he let his enraged wife in

to My House 23 years ago

to find me naked on the bed

while he held her back

and offering nothing to cover me

said into her right ear:

“TAKE A LOOK”

??

Eye am dressed all wrong

For today when my X called

2 call me harsh names

Sitting illuminated

by the Frost Park Fountain

3-tiered and glittering

Eye wait for my daughter Eliza

to finish her motorcycle course–

I’m in Yarmouth

on the Western Edge of The Province

facing West

with the sun trickling

through a curtain

of man-made rain

Dr Blair wrote to me

that he loved my toes —

what about the rest of me?

Where is he now?

And whose toes is he after

23 years later?

Two of my favourite sounds:

Rain & Ocean Surf —

The sounds of water

in motion.

Last night Eye had a Coors Edge

at an outdoor cafe

in Shelburne

where Eye sat for hours

to take in the sights

of traffic and people —

Today Eye went out

to The Cape —

the three-mile long

spit of stone and sand, white sand

and green dunes

upon which is anchored

the one hundred foot high Cape Light

which shines

into my bedroom window —

out there upon its tree-less wilderness

Eye saw an orange butterfly

heading somewhere

and found a beverage can

faded to its aluminum sheen

and saw a one-legged man

sun bathing with an artificial leg

propped up against his beach chair.

There’s a line of light

beyond the scrub spruce

jutting against the monochromatic sky

which Eye could paint

if Eye painted that way —

butt Eye paint with found objects

abstractly

and the view Eye behold

is painted in M(eye) Mind