The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:55pm
Who gave Me This Life
where I can write
poetry all day
& look out the windows —
Who gave Me This Place
filled with birds
& house dust
lint balls I don’t have
to examine to see
They’re nothing more
than Galaxies —
Who gave Me This Start
out of the ebb
of hospitalizations
straddled between
two husbands, a dead mother
& The Love Of A Puny Man
I somehow see
as Heroic?
The Hawk Living Room 6:15pm
I stand at the screened-in window
higher than The Child I am
listening to two sounds
I Love:
I Love The Birds & I Love The Waves
am I being too simplistic?
Bird Life here on The Hawk
& the rhythm of surrounding Ocean
Feed Me
Sustain Me
Nourish Me
I Am Growing Up
in a small paradise
The Hawk Outpost 9:48am
There Was A Title
On My Mother’s Shelves:
Munching On Existence*
I Bite My Apple
As I Look Out
Favouring No Resistance
*Robert A. Raines
Barrington, NS 4:30pm
I Am That Child
climbing into Her Father’s Shopping Cart
talking in complete sentences
about The Monkeys at The Zoo
and The Snake in
The Snake House
–
I Am That Child
with blond hair pulled back
into a pony tail
asking Her Mother, repeatedly
“Who You wavin’ at, Mom?”
–
I Am That Dark Haired Child
alone beside a rock
with two sticks
as drum sticks
turning away from Old Men
to examine
Her Own Play
The Hawk Glass Table 3:00pm
Clear Squawk Of The Jay
Calls Me To My Infancy
His Nestlings Are Safe?
The Hawk Outpost 5:07pm
Cumulus Clouds Line
My View
From My Kitchen Outpost
Off To The North East
They Rise Like
Ridges Of Ice Cream
I Have Only
To Place 3 Cherries
On Top
The Hawk Deck 9:08am
I Am Drinking In
The Silver
Of This 22nd Day
Of This 22nd Year
Into The Awakening
I
Have
Come
To This Ever-glade
Of Peace
&
Prosperity
Where I Reside
With My Loving Husband
&
My Beautiful Singing Daughter
Whether I Stay
Or Not
I Will Carry With Me
The Ages
Of Time
&
Be A Representative
Of The Life
We’ve Lived
Before
The Hawk West Desk Window 9:45pm
If God Creates
The Universe
She Does It Every Night
She Spits Out Stars
Against Her Mirror Image
in an effort to floss
Her Identity
then brushes thoroughly
aggressively
Her Set Of Calcified Moons
to eject a frothing paste
down
into
the
sink
hole
The Hawk Portico 3:15pm
I am like a Big Italian Woman
leaning on bare elbows
out an open window
surveying Her Neighbourhood —
does She hear The Birds
as She nods to Her Neighbours
& watches Children on bicycles?
Joanna Gilman Hyde 