Joanna Gilman Hyde

"Good Morning, World!"

Tag: 9/11

WHAT IS MY MATURITY LEVEL?

The Arms & Hands of The Hawk Occupant 1:22pm

He’s going away again

for the 3rd monthly segment since November

to The Dominican Republic

& I’m not allowed to miss His Proximity

I’m instructed to use mental telepathy

instead I’m dressed to Kill

in a Black & Aqua Patterned Super Hero Top I’ve never worn

in My Black Leggings & Black Ankle Boots

Black Socks & Black Underwear

Silver Fish earrings given to Me

by My Aunt Angie on My 31st Birthday

My Birks Endless Silver Spiral Bangle

Dark Lipstick

I could Kill

with A Word

ENITNELAV

Rudder’s Yarmouth 3:47pm

He carries Me like Christ

He goes before Me on Highways

in traffic tie-ups

I hear His Word

against any bad decision

on My Part

He is embodied

embedded

in My (——-)

JOURNAL ENTRY

The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:00pm

“Maybe He has carried You far enough”

“But He will carry Me for The Rest of My Life”

“You are happy, now, where You are”

“Are You trying to tell Me to get rid of Him?”

“No, but just keep Him In Reserve”

“Yes, maybe I can do that.  He needn’t be

in the forefront of My Mind”

“He needn’t be in the forefront

of The World”

ARE YOU ALL SILVERED OUT?

The Hawk Kitchen 11:11am

Those *2* Giant Blocks

of Rectangular Silver

Came Crashing Down

on My Miles of Silver Duct Tape

on My Miles of Watery Plastic Sheeting

on My Ten-thousand Square Feet of Dacron Canvas

laid out, smoothed out

weighed down by 400 Sand Bags

Painted for Thousands of Office Workers

It was My

Self Organizing Galaxy

It All Came Crashing Down

in Zillions of Silver Streaks

on My Head on The Afternoon of March 31st, 1993

I have been crawling out ever since

note:  title from WHB

A CHILD OF LETTERS

The Hawk Corner Room 2:22pm

I was A Child of Letters

Valentines to Grand Parents

folded-over butterfly stationary to A Canadian Boyfriend

round pink stationary to My Mother from My Father’s Farm

I wrote to The Rockland County Journal News

when I was eight going on nine

thanking The Valley Cottage Fire Department

for saving Our Woods from a children’s brushfire

a page of loose-leaf in The 5th Grade to My Father

telling Dad to pay Mom a hundred dollars

a page of loose-leaf in The 6th Grade to A Boy

Who ripped it in half

& into My Teens

to Cousins, Friends

Boys I went to bed with

or wanted to

I wrote letters

to Men in executive offices

in My Early Twenties

I wrote & I wrote

all My Life So Far

like magic I am A Woman of Letters

They have preceded Me

Up Here in My Beautiful Corner Room

looking out over The Atlantic Ocean

with My Husband home from work

& a claw-less Siamese

pawing at The Door

SERVER NOT FOUND

February 9th The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:58pm

The Internet is down

with a Red Exclamation Mark

notifying This Account

of no connection

I am connected

I am tuned in

on My Island attached

by a flooded causeway

to the rest of The Province

to the rest of The World

I could be, am I?

That Server

February 10th The Hawk Corner Room Noon

Can You make a poem

out of a News Report

of an eleven-year-old Boy

killed by carbon monoxide poisoning

while a Father shovelled snow

a Son kept warm

by an idling engine?

1:00pm

I could be that Determined Girl

Who shut Her Self in Her Room

stared at Her Self in Her Dresser Mirror

until The Glaring Face

moulded It Self into distorted patches

of brooding dark hues

I could have a lock-in

a lock-down

with the radio on for music

but not for News

WHAT HAPPENED?

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?

 

WHERE ARE WE?

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?

HERE

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

THERE

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