Joanna Gilman Hyde

"Good Morning, World!"

Tag: childhood

ATLANTIC 2

The Hawk Window Seat 10:52am

Years ago I left a house

with home-made curtains

& wooden floors

My Children both were babies there

& I was young with motherhood

& early marriage I thought was happy

until the onset of a tumour

inside My Mother’s Head

FEROCITY

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:00pm

In December 1970 I wanted to possess

badly wanted

A Pair Of Love Birds

green & red —

sitting so close

in the local pet store

I had My nine-year-old heart set

on Them & cried to My Mother

that I had to have Them

to which She replied, “Joge, what if One Of Them

dies?”

Instead, on Christmas Morning I found

a beautiful Indian Ring Neck Parakeet

but He died That Day

at the bottom of His Golden Cage

& destroyed

My ability to see

The Singularity Of God

FEEDING THE CHILDREN

Tusket, NS 11:45am

When are We going to stop

hearing why Christmas should

or shouldn’t be —

or what it should or shouldn’t

be for?

Like an open van-load of toys

in a car dealer’s show room

to attract any child’s attention

with a sales woman’s pronouncement:

“It’s for the kids —

that’s what Christmas

should be for –“

LAVENDER LADY

Eliza’s Lavender Room 7:36pm

The Second Coming of Christ

has moved out of Her Husband’s Room

to afford greater access

to sleep without cats

— a temporary move —

but now to live

in the singularity of mind

DIVINE & HUMAN

as She programs Her Self

to open up The World

by saying “Good Night”

to Its mammoth past

THE DECISION

The Hawk Living Room 1:28pm

One Weekend in Early November

My Daughter decided

to quit school

— finishing out the semester of course —

to go to Florida

to work on a boat

— the powering kind —

She wrote a to-do list

blended up an avocado smoothie

for Me to taste

& That was That

Facing My Black Star

The Hawk Living Room 2:22pm

I Am The Fury

The Black Heat Of Possession

Red-bladed

Against

The Purple Heart

Of My Third Child

1961

The Hawk Queen Bed 9:30pm

I am That Infant

born of Childhood Playmates

Who should never have married

carried in the arms

of Dr Albert Schweitzer

forever held in a black & white photograph

hanging in The Dining Room

of Dr W Hunter Blair

PREPAREDNESS

The Hawk West Desk Window NOON

I have My Paint Clothes on:

Black Marks and Spencer pants

of My Husband’s

from twenty years ago —

a little girl’s white knitted top

with pearl buttons

no jewellery except for My Silver Hoops

I’m waiting for My Canvas

to be delivered

I’m churning

My Meaning Of Life

over & over

in My Brain

NECESSITY OF THE PAST

The Hawk Portico 5:07pm

How does The Jay

call Me so, back

into the the early reaches

of My Childhood?

Is that why We have

distinctive bird song

to harken back

to parts We shan’t

forget?

WILD ISLAND

The Tomato-coloured Couch 3:25pm

I had a suburban upbringing

counteracted by summers

on a Wild Island

off the coast of Nova Scotia

I was a Nyack Public School Student

with paper route and good grades —

on The Island

I wore no clothes

and turned My White Bread Ass

Honey Brown