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