The Hawk Kitchen 5:01pm
I looked up from cutting
My Potatoes
and took in My Breath
seeing The First Illuminaton
of an otherwise nondescript day
— The Sun had broken through
in The West
and to The East I saw
The Scraggly Apple
and bank of scrub spruce
momentarily
tinged with Gold
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:18am
I am comfortable
in My House —
It’s not a hotel
with lavish sheets & pillows —
It comes with A Husband
& Seven Cats
lying about with the rain
& Our Second Cups
of Coffee
Me holding My Self-portrait with above portrait of My Mother Elizabeth Walden Hyde by Bernard Taylor 1966 and watercolour of Me as an infant by EB Walden upper right 1961
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:57am
Hunter has a sideways glance
I find so endearing
He cocks His Head
to the right
& catches You with His Eye
tilted
for a split second
& looks away & down
having hinted
“Isn’t that so?”
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:22pm
My Halo is back
visiting Me for half an hour
while I listened
to world financial forecasts
with Hunter
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:33pm
I will not be burned
at the stake I will be shot
in The Back again
The Tomato-coloured Couch 2:39pm
Giant Foundation
for Me to stand supported
about to topple?
*founder of The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art
written in honour of Peter Cooper’s birthday February 12, 1791
The Hawk Dining Room 8:24am
If I could paint The Sky
this morning
It would be a WOW Sky
blending into The Ocean
with lateral lines of pinkish light
Sky Light
coming through the breaks
in blue-grey clouds
with Golden Wash above
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:52pm
If I were to paint
a picture of My Self
what colour would I use
to start? Yellow, please
as I see Me in a room
of Gold
with Purple Rings
under My Eyes
as I see Them sag
into disproportion
I would put Chartreuse
upon My Fallen Lids
stark Black for Brows
still arched
My Two Left Moles
would be three-dimensional
& My Lips, cracked slightly
with age lines
would be a Lurid Red
maybe smearing across
The Right Side
Of My Face
The Hawk Window Seat 12:22pm
I have put up
a sheer lavender curtain
— one that Eliza didn’t like —
in Her vacated lavender room
now to be used for Guests
Who may never come
— the curtain has purple carnations
scattered across it
without obscuring the view
of rolling surf beyond
Joanna Gilman Hyde 