The Hawk Corner Room 2:43pm
I sit angled on The Couch
half-way facing The Steel-cold Ocean
My Right Arm crooked on a blanket
to hold My Silver Pen
My Knees bent on the edge of a cushion
I am warm
& breathing
The Hawk West Desk Window Noon
Dust Balls — mostly fine cat hair —
gather up in My House
like Galactic Formations
always in the same places
though I just found
a New One
looking like a Chickadees’s Nest
below My Husband’s bedside table
where I stood
to fold His Laundry
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:10pm
What happened to The Effervescent Girl
of Yesterday
Who willingly drove into Shelburne
for lunch & coffee
with Her Daughter
dressed — The Effervescent Girl —
care-free in Her LL Bean Jeans & Blouse
delivering Her Daughter’s grad photo
to be framed
What happened to make today come
where She finds Her Self
tired & sullen
dressed again in black
to drive to Yarmouth
for Her Husband’s CT Scan
to come home to a trapped cat
Who’s made an unwashable mess
on Eliza’s comforter?
The Hawk Corner Room 10:07am
Where are We
when
a seven-year-old boy
gets suspended
for throwing a pretend grenade
into “a box of evil forces”
when
this same planet
condones & finances
war?
The Hawk Corner Room 4:52pm
My Parents have put Me here
really sittin’ pretty
in My Grey Bath Robe
— never dressed today —
— only showered —
padding around in white socks
to settle before My Immaculate View
of Ocean & Sky & occasional long white wave
–
Yes, if it weren’t for My Parents
would I be Here at all?
Tomorrow will be the first anniversary
of My Father’s Quiet Death
March 31st will be the twentieth
of My Mother’s skull-shattering
Expiration
–
and I am left
in the care of My Doctor/Husband
A Man My Mother never met
A Man My Father said would grow too old
–
Yes, I’m sittin’ pretty
in a Present to die for
My Future to live
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:15am
Both My Parents
have not died
for Me
Oh, They’re gone al-right
I just don’t feel Their Absence
It’s as if They never existed
except as Minds
in My Mind
before Me
The Hawk Corner Room 3:53pm
I was That Pouty Child
stomping Her Left Foot
when She couldn’t see
G-O-D written in The Sky
–
Forty-five years later I am
looking at The Clouds
billowing behind streams of flurries
out over The Ocean
when the notion of God
is no longer literal
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:47pm
I was That 37 Year-old
with The New Haircut
back from Pass
— why was I even in There?
Because I thought
I was The Second Coming of Christ
wearing A Sign on My Blouse
“Waiting To Be Believed”
with A Helium Balloon tied
to My Very Thin Wrist
being told by Nurses
to take off My “inappropriate” Sign
& My Balloon
so They would agree
to talk to Me
The Hawk Corner Room 2:38pm
I sit upstairs in The Corner Room
temporarily vacated by Eliza
I look out to the layers of grey
in My Winter Sky
I wear My Usual Black
& wonder why
I have an anonymous Gravatar
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:15pm
When My First Husband told Me
He Loved Me
I wore a floral summer dress
to receive My Canadian Citizenship
He was renting a room
outside of Halifax
for a movie job
— He was a Master Carpenter —
I stayed the night with Him
— brought The Children —
in the sparse house of a Scientologist
— the only books were Scientology —
in the dark, quietly
with Eliza in Her portable crib
& Peak on a spare bed
I heard “I Love You”
in My Left Ear
Joanna Gilman Hyde 