Joanna Gilman Hyde

This Year’s X Miss Tree

Is Naked Butt For Its Lights

Aimed At The Window

of M(eye) Upstairs Bedroom

& It’s For Sale

Will M(eye) Poetry Live Forever —

Reading Is Passe —

Or Is Technology

The Way It Is Today

Eating M(eye) Words?

M(eye) Son Is In The Army Now

So E(eye) Worry About His Death.

He’s Willing 2 Die For His Country

Or Kill For It

& Eye Do Not Agree

Butt If Eye Believe In “Reincarnation”

Does That Make Everything

OK?

God It Would Be So Nice

2 Have Loving Arms Around Me

As Eye Stand

@ M(eye) Hawk Kitchen Outpost

Looking @ M(eye) Scraggly Apple —

The Dead Tree Eye Won’t Cut Down —

It Stands Naked

In The Wind

While Eye Stand Inside

w/ 4 Cats

& 1 Pet Gull

On M(eye) Deck Rail

Just Came Back

From A Coffee w/ Milford

The Exceptional Bird-Carver

Who Gave Me A Calendar

Showing lmages of Intricate Work:

Flowing Feathers, Cocked Duck-heads

(He Says He Can Carve

Anything w/ Feathers)

& Eye Have Decided

2 Commission

The Replication of My Indian Ring Neck —

SAM

Milford’s 1st Tropical Bird*

*note — Milford Gerald Hopkins died one month after the writing of this poem.  SAM was never carved.

Eye Searched & Searched

For M(eye) Past Post

Recounting The T(eye)me

M(eye) Father Pimped Me Off

2 An Arab

Butt Eye Couldn’t F(eye)nd It

What If M(eye) 1

Surviving Cat

Was M(eye) Beloved Astro —

23 Pounds of BLACKNESS —

Eye Would Be A Witch

Butt Who Would M(eye) Potions

Be For?

Eye Have Lived Alone

In This House

For 7 Years

& Now It Has A New Roof.

As The Last Screw

Went Into A Skylight

It Shattered & Rained Down

All Over M(eye) Livingroom —

Butt As The Tomato-coloured Couch

Was Moved

2 Sweep Up The Little Glass Chunks

M(eye) Black Velvet Hair Bow Was Found

By 1 of The Crew

& Was Left For Me

2 Find Anew.

The Tomato-coloured Couch

October 20, 2023

2:50 pm

Was Eye “Mentally Ill”

For 30 Years

Since M(eye) Mother Died

Sending The Shower of Silver Lights

Down On M(eye) Head

Engulfing Me

On March 31st 1993

Convincing Me

Eye Was The 2nd Coming of Christ —

Was That “Mental Illness”?

Was Eye “Mentally Ill”

2 Fall In Love w/ A Leprechaun

Who Thought Eye Was A SEER

On April Fool’s Day 1993 —

Was Eye “Mentally Ill”

During That Summer

When Eye Wanted Desperately 2 Die

Because Eye Felt Nothing

Butt Hospital Walls

& Bedding?

Was Eye “Mentally Ill”

When Eye Spoke 2 The Leprechaun

& He Embraced Me

On October 22nd 1993

& Sent Me The Telepathic Message

of  Spiritual Love

During 1 Dark Night

In Yet Another Hospital —

& Was Eye “Mentally Ill”

When The Next Day

Eye Created M(eye) Self

& Had That Fight w/ God

Who Wanted Me 2 Serve Him

& Eye Refused?

Was It “Mental Illness”

2 Have The Apparition

of The Beautiful Dark Haired Woman

Appear On M(eye) Right Shoulder

2 Say The Most Melodious Words

Eye Had Ever Heard:

“YOU KNOW THE MEANING OF LIFE

AND SO YOU ARE A STAR —

SO GO TO SLEEP”

?

That Was All In 1993

30 Years Ago

& Eye Wrote The Book

About That Year

& The 2 Before It

& Up 2 1996

Which Took In The October 15th Birth

of M(eye) Beautiful Blonde Daughter

Eliza, Yes, In 1994 —

Eliza Came Out of The Death

of M(eye) Mother —

Eliza Would Not Exist

w/out The Death —

& Then Maria —

M(eye) Poor Maria —

Killed March 27 1997

The Anniversary of M(eye) Mother’s Death

The Horror of Which

Was Painted Out

Was Written Out

Was Met By Spiritual Force

On December 18 2016

Inside The Middle La Have Church

Coming Down On Me

Engulfing Me —

Was THAT “Mental Illness”??