Joanna Gilman Hyde

"Good Morning, World!"

Tag: 9/11 artist

MARCH

The Hawk Queen Bed 9:11am

I want to go to sleep

with the wind

up in My Turret

at the end of twenty years —

I want to sleep to seventy

& wake up to the noon

of My Old Age

no longer marred

CANADA

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:15pm

America is famous for

Its Movie Stars

Its Giant Meals

Its Wide Open Pages

& It’s Famous For Me

though I have displaced My Self

To An Even Grander Space —

I Am In The New Frontier

of Canada

where endless gallons of water

are pure

where storms melt quickly

where trees get re-forested

& My Children Make Their Lives

PERCEPTION 2

The Hawk Family Room 4:44pm

According to My Perception

There Is No Such Thing

as an “illness”

Schizophrenia

The Schizophrenia Society is barking

up the wrong tree —

when My Brother received

His “diagnosis” at 21

that was the end of His Free Thinking

His Creative Mind Had Gone As Far

as society would let It —

at My Insistence

that My Brother didn’t “have” schizophrenia

My Father Francy declared:

“Well, Howard certainly has Something

Yes, He Had A Creative Human Mind Influenced

By His Unique Perception

IS MY HOUSE CLEAN ENOUGH?

The West Desk Window 11:00am

The New Floors Are Down

without The Moulding Yet —

Hunter’s Library Is Finished

without Books

Wing Chair

& Grand Father’s Desk

I Am Frozen

In My Writing —

I recall One Social Worker

ten years ago

Make The Pronouncement

that To Stay Clean

Some People Keep Busy

or was that

To Stay Busy

Some People Clean?

BEFORE SUPPER

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:14pm

Oh Bug I Saw You Again

Against My Beautiful Sunset

Were You Following Me?

Did You Know I’d Been Writing

& Stopped Only To Look?

WITCHCRAFT

The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:10pm

The Banking World Today

is being taken over

by Big Women & The Small Men Who Love Them —

The Men of Stature

are being pushed out

by Bossy Females

& Their Nugget-headed Partners —

The Men of Stature

try to find pens

to write customers’ notes

on the backs of business cards

while the pretty-faced sized 12 & 14

Women In Charge

explain to Their Nodding Female Customers

There’s A New System

of labelling a check that skips the scanner

as an apparently arbitrary #906

RECIPE FOR GOD

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

THIS GOT ME OUT OF BED

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

GOD’S PALLET

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

SPIRAL

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