The Hawk Kitchen 11:15am
My House Is Someone
I Have To Hold —
I Put My Arms Around Her
& Hug Her Tight —
She Is Someone
I Care About
I Care Deeply
For My Beautiful Home
& She Glows With Pleasure
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:15pm
I’m In The Murk
Of Identity Silver —
Our Cherished Cork Flooring
Blanketing The Upstairs —
My Tastes Are Being Tested
As Our New Downstairs Floor Covering
Is Stopped Mid-stream:
Identity Tea Cork Panels For The Family Room
Are Unexpectedly Bevel-edged —
Showing Every Seam
& Personality Metallic Sky For The Living Room/Dining Room
Is Not The Pattern We Picked.
I Am Walled In With Boxes
Of Wicanders Cork Comfort
& A Meeting With Wilson’s Home Hardware
Scheduled For Friday Morning
As They Too Went Uninformed
Not Only As To The Manufacturer’s Changes
In Edging & Patterning —
They Went Uninformed
As To The Core Thinning Of Specs:
A Sudden 10.5mm Of Total Panel Thickness
Downsized From Identity Silver’s Plush 12mm
The Yarmouth Psychiatric Unit, Yarmouth NS
about ten years ago
Take One Firm Believer
Who Thinks She’s It
Throw In A Dose Or Two Of Scepticism
Stir It All Up
Heap On A Prayer
Cook On High
Until Ready To Serve
The Hawk West Desk Window 12:05pm
I Have A New Bible
to Thump —
Open It Clean Down The Middle
& Pummel It With Your Thumbs:
It’s Titled The Joanna Hyde School of Thought —
Believe In Your Self First
then believe in God
The Hawk West Desk Window 5:10pm
If I were God, Which I Am,
I would decree the legalization
of Gay Marriage
the decriminalization of Street Drugs & Prostitution
the illegalization of Abortion
the equalization of God & Humanity
The Hawk Queen Bed 11:50am
On a Grey Day in March
I write The Poem for The 27th
The Day My Two Greatest Losses
befell Me by Fate:
The First was My True Companion —
My Mother made certain of that —
The Second was A Beginning —
The Beginning of A Child
I would never know
as I knew My Mother
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:36pm
If only I could run away
from My Past
& trip headlong into My Future —
but Where would that put Me?
Where then is My Present?
The Tomato-coloured Couch 9:13pm
He stole That Moment, Bastard
My Daughter was in Her Second Summer
when She waved Good-bye
to a Friend I’ll never see again —
held in Her Father’s Arms
My Little Eliza
mouthed the words
uttering Them distinctly —
They were Two Words
I tried not to hear —
He bastardized that moment
in Her very early speech
as He peeled off
My Darling’s “See Ya!”
& caught Them in His too quick
paws
Hand Over Those Words!
Let Me Use Them
as freely as You Do!
I want My Freedom Back
I’ll never get Eliza’s Moment
but I can try to have My Own
without Your constant reminder
even in a petty catch phrase
which seems to have gained in popularity
since I first heard You sing it out
when you were My Doctor
twenty-five years ago
The Hawk Family Room 4:40pm
I See Our Galaxy
Out My West Window
Filling Up & Out The Sky
Glowing In Its Centre
With What May Be The Sun
The Tomato-coloured Couch 3:41pm
I always said I never lived
with a broken heart,
but My Mother broke My Heart
when She died
twenty years ago,
but I lived
with My Broken Spirit
taken over by God —
God stepped in
— stepped on My Heart —
He made Me see a Shower of Lights
Which did not fill Me
with inner peace
I was restless
not sleeping
years on medication —
I’m still on it —
I cannot drink The Red Wine
of mirth
without sleep disturbance
I need My Sleep
My Peace Restored
Joanna Gilman Hyde 