Joanna Gilman Hyde

Offered to Dr. W. Hunter Blair as part of the divorce settlement– was refused. Comes with its lurid poem for sale now at $58,000 Canadian

This morning I woke

at The Time I Was Born

I made some tea

with the cats

at my feet

and went downstairs

to test my painting

titled “Monitoring”

Eye have returned to My House

with not one inquiry

not one viewing

Eye have returned to The Cats

they don’t have to be

given away

Eye have returned to My Dance

at 5:00 am to Guns & Roses

Sweet Child of Mine

Eye have returned to My Art

in my cleared-out studio

cleaned out when I thought

I was moving

Eye have returned to My Writing

My house is for sale

and everything it contains

every scrap of art created by my children

every archived piece of juvenalia

from my self and my brother

every file box of family letters

every binder of plastic sheeted cards

my art, my art

spread along every wall

housed in my once-loved studio

it all has to go.

My painted doll dresser

made by my grandparents

Eye emptied out yesterday

ready to sell

and the cats, the cats

will have to find a new place

except for Astro

my biggest blackest cat

On a clear Sunday morning

at the end of summer

I sit on my not-so-famous deck

to drink my morning decaf —

The cats are out around me

and the laps of the cutting waves

and occasional distant bird calls

grace my new? existence

which Eye have been questioning

of late

The Scraggly Apple

has no leaves now — it sits bare

for the birds and me