The Hawk Utility Room 7:56pm
I stood above
My Mother’s Killer
dying on the basement floor
I thought of all
I’ve done to fill Her
and now can sleep
forever more
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:19pm
My Mother’s Brain Tumour
is dying
on the basement floor
is soon to be
enveloped by
perhaps a silver heart
but
the “roots”
will
survive
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
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:38pm
There once was A Girl
for Whom all She touched
turned to Silver
She lived in a Silver House
with Her Mother
and Five Cats
(The Cats weren’t Silver)
— there was a Silver Statue
of Her Mother after The Mother
died
& The Girl kept It
under Her Silver Bed
She had Friends come over
but would not touch Them
unless They wanted to be Silver too
One Day She met A Little Man
down a mossy lane
and The Little Man touched Her
by mistakei
He instantly turned
to Silver
and ran away
without even telling The Girl
His Name
The Hawk Window Seat 10:55am
Gub Plays Her Guitar
& Sings In My Cathedral
I Am Completed
The Hawk Deck 11:34am
The Chick-a-dee calls Me
away from My Self
to The Time of My Mother
when My Mother fed Them
& Me
in Valley Cottage
& called to Them
“Chick-a-dee-dee
Chick-a-dee-dee”
Here on The Hawk
Those Little Birds
take Me back
to when I was A Little Girl
raised by a single mother
in My First Real Home
My Real Home Now
is here on The Hawk
Fifty Years Later
where I listen
to The Chick-a-dees
of My Choosing
The Hawk Basement 1:00pm
Last night I dreamt
of a Gorilla Woman
Who could not speak
being “cared for” by a man
Who had fathered two young girls
by another woman
and The Gorilla Woman
was Their Foster Mother —
first Her Face was a Gorilla Face
then She turned into An Old Human
wearing Old Lady Clothes
The Hawk Deck 7:47pm
All That I Have Lived For
Is Wrapped Up In This Moment
As I Am Wrapped In My Heavy Grey Bathrobe
With The Spears Of Light Forever Above Me
And All Down Around Me
How Have I Gotten This Far?
Through A Child’s Adoration Of A Pair
Of Love Birds To A Mother’s Love
Of Her Dearest 2.4’s
The Evening Light Is Upon The East
Illuminating The Scrub Spruce Forest
And I Have Come This Far
Joanna Gilman Hyde 