I once stood before a window screened
with hardware cloth
in an institution
of not My Choosing
–
from an upper storey
I stood there as if
before a microphone
I called out
to imaginary Children below
to save Them from the water’s edge
to save The Gulls from extinction
The Hawk Portico 1:15pm
On A Day Like Lovely Today
Eighteen Years Ago
I Laboured All Day
With My Daughter
Who Was Hardly A Labour
Born Into An Inflatable Pool
@ 9:04 That Night:
She Came Out PERFECT
My Daughter stood above Me
on The Hawk Balcony
wearing an off-white sweater
She slipped on a pearl earring
Her Face was “Done”
She looked like the apparition
of An Angel
— I wished I could just send
My Mother’s Island Possession
over to Her —
but She’s going to Her Boyfriend’s hockey game
& turning 18 tomorrow
& now She’s changed
into a grey sweatshirt
What is The Necessity of an “Accident?”
–
If That Asteroid
hadn’t wiped out The Dinosaurs
65 million years ago
would Humanity
as We Know It
be crawling The Earth
Today?
–
Could this Progression happen Elsewhere?
Notice to My Readers:
My West Desk Window 10:52am
has been revised with new title: Big Red Truck Cab
Thank you for your attentiveness,
Joanna
The Hawk West Desk Window 10:52am
My Depression today is
a Big Red Truck Cab
inadequately hooked up
to an old mobile home
while I sit at My West Desk Window
waiting for A Parade
–
inside The Big Red Truck Cab
The Driver & His Partner sit
waiting for an excavator
to handle the job
of pulling the mobile home out
a long straight drive
around a right-angle corner
onto the road
this operation takes about forty minutes
–
next The Big Red Truck Cab drives out
& parks up ahead on the road
behind a leading white pick-up with warning lights
I make some Toast & Marmalade
& watch from My West Desk Window
–
The Big Red Truck Cab is re-hooked
to the old mobile home
& fills the road with Its catch
another truck brings up the rear
with a big red & white WIDE LOAD sign
–
I go downstairs to put on the kettle
I can watch through My House Side Door
The Parade of heavy equipment
is set
The Kettle boils
I pour My Tea
I go to look at My Line Up
It’s gone!
The Hawk Portico 5:24pm
The Waves are brusque tonight
& the sky is grey
I’m on My Second Beer
after a day of recovering from “My Spell”
in-which I lost My Decisiveness
& other people had to plan for Me
I am not altogether comfortable in These States
luckily They don’t happen often
but They can & do
in the unlikeliest of places
like Sobey’s
or some other zoo
–
I freeze up
not knowing what to think
or My Thinking’s Hung
temporarily shut down —
the only fortification I respond to
is the Kindness of Others
& I have always been met with Kindness
Cami finally has on Her Collar
with A Bell
I drink My Morning Coffee
with Bird Hunting Gunfire
off The Cape
I want My Daddy
to come tuck Me in
— My Real Daddy who wasn’t Real
He’s Dead —
I want My WHB
to tuck Me in
with His Soft Words
& careful careful touch —
I’ve taken My Pills
2 Hours in advance
of Bedtime
Joanna Gilman Hyde 