The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 8:29pm
Armed with a blunted bread knife
clutched right-handed
I have baked My Last Cake
& am about to survive
outside My Kitchen Haven
deep inside the lands of dispute
& vocalization of the state
of Our Laws & Morality
Dignity & Human Endeavor
The Hawk Portico 4:57pm
EYE will not be contained
by a cottage studio
where EYE write or paint
the fog tumbling in
like the meringue
EYE fold
into MEYE Bread Pudding
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 5:05pm
I am living every woman’s dream
with 2 handsome husbands
& a lover in the wings —
I can make bread pudding
to save the birds from My Cooking
I can sit in My Grandmother’s Wrought Iron Chair
to look at The Sea,
My Pristine Blue Horizon
& remember what She said when I was a child:
“Someday Joge, You are going to make some man
very happy”
The Hawk Kitchen 4:12pm
I can feed Millions
with My Ham & Broccoli Casseroles
My Trays of Eggplant Parmesan
My Pots of Baked Spaghetti
Yes — I Am A Cook
& I Am Cooking up
The Feast
of God’s Deposition
The Hawk Kitchen 2:42pm
I see A Zillion Suns
swirling in My Spaghetti Sauce
Frying Pan
They’re speeding up as They approach
My Wooden Spoon
floating
then taper off
taking
forever
to
stop
The Hawk Kitchen 5:15pm
I’ve set My Deluxe Spaghetti
with hamburger AND sausage
housed in crockery from My First Marriage
into My Gleaming Oven —
I spent two days cleaning off
baked-on two-year-old grease
including showering with the racks this morning —
now My Like-new Oven will provide a fortifying meal
to serve dinner guests
any day this week
The Tomato-coloured Couch 10:22pm
I sang in My Kitchen
with cats like children
underfoot
potato steam
rising high
happy to cook
happy to clean
The Hawk Kitchen 7:15pm
I used to announce to Hunter
when I felt a wave of happiness
& now I have felt not The Wave
but The Smooth Line — The Flat Line
of complete fulfilment:
It came in My Kitchen
cooking Fettuccine Alfredo
with spaghetti noodles
& looking out the sink window
to the evening light
on the rocks
lining My Cellar Drive
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:24pm
This afternoon I fixed
a whole turkey dinner, properly timed
for the first time in My Life
I felt like the satisfied college girl
who successfully cooks dinner
For Her First Boyfriend
Joanna Gilman Hyde 