The Hawk Queen Bed 3:36pm
I met A Girl once
out by a pool
She had an assignment
to colour robin’s egg blue
in Her Colouring Book
I was told She lived
institutionalized
My Mother
didn’t approve
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:20pm
My Mother’s Day Bunch
is a scraggly cascade of drying
lilly petals & crisp carnations
There are three well-preserved roses
the colour of autumn
with a card held high
“Hope You’ll enjoy
The Light of My Life bouquet –“
Eliza’s Room 10:09am
When a cat knocks
something over
& it breaks
& You try to fix it
too hastily to replace the fractional pieces
You’re left with a unique ornament
of a mother elephant
with baby
& the defining mark of accident
on its left ear
The Hawk Corner Room 4:49pm
My Mother’s Death
is My Inclusion
It’s The Hazy Arrow
through The Heart of Me
surrounded by The Glitter
of Ideal Love
& perfect symmetry
Marked
The Hawk Deck 9:36am
I Am The Vessel
of Life
consuming inordinate quantities
of water
retaining fluid
in My Head
& Limbs
I hear the call of The Mourning Dove
& The Grackle
on This New Spring Morning
I think of what My Life
contains:
My House
My Husband
My Far-away Kids
grown now
with Their Own
Lives
The Hawk Outpost 8:05am
I stand in a beam
of Silver Light
thinking of My Children
My Sole Delight?
I seem to see Them
in My Mind
as if I have Them
for All Time
The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:44pm
Women are burning up
all over this fair world
They’re trying to make supper
& carrying on conversations
at the same time
talking about what it’s like
to have all The Power
& no place to put it
The Hawk Living Room 12:34pm
When I learned to walk
in Africa
I stooped over
& squatted
in The Sands of Gabon
to pick up spiral shells
to lift into
My Mother’s
View
Eliza’s Room 2:30pm
I live in a lavender room
where I have pulled up
the curtain against a backdrop
of rolling waves
and scrub spruce tree tops
above a painted chest
housing My Mother’s Childhood Diaries
I am sanctified
in My Daughter’s Room
where The Out-stretched Quilt
of rippling bands of purple
spreads Itself beneath two walls
of My World Trade Center Rooftop Painting
titled Self Organizing Galaxy
and beneath My Signature
in three-foot-high letters
coloured Black
Joanna Gilman Hyde 