Joanna Gilman Hyde

"Good Morning, World!"

GALAXY POEM #?

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 1:45pm

I’ve done enough

of sweeping up galaxies —

it’s an endless task

organizing, compiling known particles

of cat hair, cat food crumbs

specks of kitty litter, the occasional claw point

not to mention Heaven’s Dust

heavy in My House —

“Out Damn Spot!”

TAKE STOCK

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 3:30pm

Say A Prayer For Gold!

One straight line up

is not enough

to carry Us out

of Our Doldrums —

Cry Out For Gold

taking Silver in Its Hand

shimmering, glimmering

like The Head

of Donald J. Trump

MACKEREL SKY

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 7:11pm

When I was in Grade Five

at The Sandy Point Consolidated School

there was A Beautiful Dark Haired Girl

who told Us of Her Mother calling

a certain kind of cloud cover

“Mackerel Sky” for

the fillet-shaped fleshy flecks

of the fish I knew so well

from when My Mother used to roll Her Fillets

in flour and “froy them up roight crisp”

in butter served with lemon and parsley

TRANCE TREMORS

The Hawk Exercise Room:  10:11am

EYE catch The Sun

in My Foetal Pulsating Fingers

as I hold up My Left Leg backwards

My Right Hand comes forward

illuminated and red

LOOKING UP

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 7:36am

The Sun has risen

much further North

than I expected

& I am to execute

a sculpture of Hunter’s closest friend

whose eyes are up & open

to the surprise of his

final moment

MORNING PLAY

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 9:38am

EYE See The Mighty Silver

beaming off the water’s edge

I feel the warmth of Our Sun

across My Morning Face —

I see the spheres of illumination

through My Blinking Lash

I hear the coffee water boiling

calling for A Second Steep

THE COST OF AN OUNCE OF SILVER

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:02pm

I stood tonight

in The Little Store

waiting for My Medium Pizza —

extra cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes, hot peppers, black olives

and cradled in My Right Arm

a 2-litre bottle of Coke

with Santa still on it —

total bill on Visa:

$22.80 Canadian

WHERE WE ARE TODAY

The Hawk West Desk Window 9:55am

Before The Dawn

Of Our New Era

We Are On The Cusp of Night

We Are Silver Now

As The Moon

As The Midnight Hour

Of Transformation

From The Golden Sun

Into That Precious Rarity:

Our Star-patterned

Future

MORNING NOTE

The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 8:22am

Seek Striated Sky

Over My Steel-grey Sea

As Our Coffee Steeps

TRIUMVIRATE

The Hawk Living Room 4:30pm

A new arrangement of paintings

builds a triangle upon My Living Room Wall:

My Mother’s Portrait as a very young woman

painted by My Uncle

dresses the wall below My Balcony

hanging in the middle

above two impressionist paintings

of Africa — She took Me

as an infant to grow there

in Gabon and came home

with these two paintings

I framed in art school —

one showing a grass-roofed hut

palm trees with seated figure —

the other showing four bark canoes

and two figures readying them

in the foreground of open water

and open sky —

My First Year In Africa

She called The Worst Year

of Her Life — spent insomniac

underweight, pregnant

with My Fated Brother —

Africa inspired Her Novel

NOT EVEN THE MOON

never published —

Her Portrait looks down

to those two African paintings

and I look up to all three