The Hawk Queen Bed 10:00pm
I Know What
is going to happen
I Know What
is happening
I Know What is Going
to happen
I Know What
is happening
(arms bent up & out to the sides
head facing up)
We Are Ushering
in a new era
We Are Ushering In
The New Age
The Tomato-coloured Couch 9:15pm
We Wear Our Minds Outside Our Selves:
if Our Hair is Frazzled
We have gone miles
in open wind
–
if Our Bellies are Big
We have gorged Ourselves
on Great Ideas
left under The Table
–
if We Smile
Our Contentment
may mean Our Wanderings
have lead Us
to Our Ends
–
if We Laugh
We are revealing
Our Most Primitive Selves
in defiance
of the psychiatric labels
for which We were sent away
The Hawk Kitchen 7:50pm
I have drunk My First Beverage
W–A–T–E–R
from My Chalice Divine
standing before My Dramatic Sky
of heavy mauve cloud
& Illuminated Gull
reaching around
to the sea-view
The Hawk Living Room 1:45pm
I am sitting in a beam of sun
in a velvet chair
anything can happen here
in My Mind
any thought can be unleashed
with or without choice:
How do I know
I am deliberately
recalling
the total lack
of sun
in The Yarmouth Psychiatric Unit?
The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:00pm
My Mother told Me I couldn’t carry a tune
so She put Me in a crinkly black tutu
& expected Me to dance
I was the clumsy conundrum
My Teachers couldn’t figure out
I was Cinderella in French
& Teacher’s Pet in Junior High Science
I didn’t like High School
with One Peculiar Friend
Who wanted to get high
at lunch
My Mother put Me into Her College —
a small liberal arts school in up state New York
where I took all the art I could get
& transferred into Cooper Union in New York City
After graduating I decided
to paint the most visible roof in the world:
#5 World Trade Center
& was given permission by The Port Authority of NY & NJ
In 1984 I signed My Name
to the ten-thousand square-foot canvas
in three-foot high letters
I wore a crinkly black skirt
filmed by German Television
& three decades later
is on You Tube
The Hawk West Desk Window 4:44pm
I am in search of a Chalice
a heavy tubular drinking vessel
preferably frosted, to be pushed repeatedly
at My Fridge Water Dispenser
— I looked in Barrington today
in The Salvation Army Thrift Store
3 Bargain Stores
& Shopper’s Drug Mart
but nothing caught My Eye
nor
My Fist
Barrington Passage, NS 2:22pm
I’m sitting in a Doctor’s Office
One of The Safest Places
in The World
or is It?
Here I am given a little green pill
to ward off anxiety
about The World at Large
I have had My Talk
& My Walk
but continue to feel
a shadow
of uneasiness
The Hawk West Desk Window 10:00pm
I believe I will live
to tell the story of My Death
& not the murky recitation
of past relatives
& misty shores
I will live to tell
of nightly dreams
coalescing
into daily performance
the history of which
enshrouded
by My Veil
of Truth
will come to My Listeners
as no surprise
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:45pm
Look Out Children
‘cuz here I come
to colour Your World
in Pink & Gold
from Horizon to Horizon
I’m here to show You
True Blue
the ancient cauldrons
of desire
for leadership
of decades
aeons
Joanna Gilman Hyde 