The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:34pm
I have arranged a vase
of Eliza’s dried roses
sitting below two framed portraits
of Africa
My Beginning
I began in Gabon
for My First Year
photographed in Dr Schweitzer’s Arms
I have been in The Arms
of Doctors
ever since
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:25pm
WHO is DHW?
He Is The Inversion
Of Me
He Is More Than
My Mirror Image
He Sustains Me —
Have I Written This
Before?
Without Him I Would Have Been
Locked Up
More Than I Already Have Been
You See, I Can Relate To Him
On ANY Level
& I Relate To Him
In My Mind
Through My Mind
He Is My Mind
& I Am His
The Hawk Deck 9:38am
The World Is Waiting
The Guns Have Been Silenced
I Will Come Forward
With A Primitive Call
To Hands, Arms Extended
— The Reconstruction —
Waiting In Our Laps
Our Greatest Power
The Hawk Kitchen 6:30pm
Scarlet Scarlet Berries
outside My back kitchen door
hit with evening sun
comfort Me as I devour
My Daughter’s Pumpkin Pudding —
My beloved Astro caught A Little Bird
thanks to Me
tossing out a banana peel
along the backyard hedge
even after I asked My Self
If All Those Little Birds
could be gone
The Hawk West Desk Window 1:38pm
Today I counted and weighed
My Volumes Of Writing —
38 Journals and My 364-page Typed Manuscript
weighing in on the bathroom scale
at 39 pounds
counting Birk’s largest bag
in-which They are contained
valuable to Me
nearly indecipherable to anyone
other than Me
& ready to hit the auction block
when I die
PS
In the meantime
I have put a pillow
on top
for a cat bed
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:22pm
I have saved every Dozen Roses
of Eliza’s
hung upside down
& dried out
in vases, arranged
two dozen still hanging
from Me, old boyfriends
one treasured young man
staged in My Kitchen
doubled dozen in cut glass
petals laying themselves out
on table tops
falling to the floor
scattered up the stairs
crunching in Her Bed Room
all their colours subtly muted
drying into generic mauve
as they lose their moisture
their scent
taking on the scent of age
of years
The Hawk West Desk Window 10:44am
I pulled up The Evening Blind
on Today’s Morning
on A Big White Truck
passing Our Living Room Window
showing Me I am On Track
I will not lie in bed
I will row on My Rowing Machine
take A Shower
and make Eggplant Parmesan
