The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:37pm
Am I feeding The Masses
pieces of Loaves & Fishes
in tiny bites
no prose —
only verse after verse
for ever-shortening attention spans?
The Hawk West Desk Window 6:18pm
I am seething to write
what a friend suggested I paint —
I cannot paint It
for It still moves
crashes
in fleeting streaks
all around Me
like the clatter
of shooting cameras
as some Superstar
emerges from a limousine
The Hawk Window Seat 2:22pm
When Next I Saw
The Blue Jay
I Saw That It Was He
Sitting High Upon A Wire
Readying For Flight
To A Far Off Place
Where He Would Stay
With Me
Forever
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:32pm
Let Me Find My Silver Pen
To Write On Your Forehead
As You Lie Back
With Your Eyes Closed —
Let Me Write On You —
Above All
I Love You —
You’re Not Going To Die
You Will Have Your Fill Of Dreams
Happy And Bad, Terrible Even —
But You Must Go Through
The Terror
And Comfort
Of The Night
In Order To Wake —
Go To Sleep My Precious World —
Let Me Rock You To Sleep
Let Me Draw My Label
My Signature
On Your Forehead —
Let Me Find My Red Felt Pen
My Permanent Marker
To Draw Upon You
Above Your Eyes
A Fleshy Heart
Filled In With Red
Out-lined By Black
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:15pm
The Message I received
from My Divine Hallucination
of the head of The Beautiful Dark Haired Woman
on My Right Shoulder
Who said, “You Know The Meaning Of Life
And So You Are A Star —
so go to sleep”
may have been, now, telling
The Whole World
to go to sleep —
perhaps it is not awakening
We need —
it is Sleeping and Dreaming
celebrating The Night
Our Darkness
to find Our True Selves
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:44pm
I think I know what Psychosis is
— or at least I can try
to explain It, briefly —
as It happens to Me:
It, The Psychotic State Of Mind
AND
BODY*
is the intense focus on One’s
surroundings —
It is One’s Perception
and The Mind’s reaction to that
Perception
as I am caught now
hearing The Peepers
and a slow car coming out
of a gravelled driveway
across the road
*I believe Mind and Body are interchangeable
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:41pm
I was once walled in
by plexi-glass & counter tops
filing cabinets & indoor-outdoor carpeting
My Performance of trying to live or die
was put on display
& written about in nurses’ journals
I was made to eat food
I could not taste
& made to shower
when all I wanted to do
was drown in the tub
Now I Am Here
on The Hawk where the only wall
makes up My Kitchen Glass Doors:
They Slide Open
I Can Walk Through
To The Outside
To The Bird Calls
Of Life
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:30pm
I once looked in a mirror
in My Private Bath
behind My Room
at The Yarmouth Regional Psych Unit
to see a face
I did not recognize:
slouched, forlorn, perplexed
The Face I See Now
in the multiple mirrors
of Our Hawk House
is MY FACE
The Hawk West Desk Window 9:25pm
I have slid through
the doors of powerful men
been followed home
by a complete rainbow
then there was a third thing
but I’ll be damned
if I can remember It
Joanna Gilman Hyde 