The Hawk West Desk Window 1:22pm
He can’t feed Himself
anymore
The Nurses have to spoon-feed
His Soft-food Diet
and water or apple juice
with a thickening agent
and change His Diaper
The Doctor says:
“There’s nothing We can do now
but make Him
comfortable”
The Hawk West Desk Window 9:34pm
Everyone was once A Molten Star
far away from Everything, but part
of A Churning Galaxy with Its Own Identity
A Uniqueness cast into Our Humanness
and when We Die, We Return
to The Eternal Cycle
and burn
The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:20pm
Within The Cauldron Of The Sun
Countless Stars Are Born
To Live Upon The Earth
Within Their Hazards
And Their Glory
–
We Live These Lives
Knowing Or Not Our Destinies
Until We Funnel Back In
Into The Sun Again
Leaving Our Shadows
Over This Eternal Playground
The Hawk Kitchen 6:30pm
Scarlet Scarlet Berries
outside My back kitchen door
hit with evening sun
comfort Me as I devour
My Daughter’s Pumpkin Pudding —
My beloved Astro caught A Little Bird
thanks to Me
tossing out a banana peel
along the backyard hedge
even after I asked My Self
If All Those Little Birds
could be gone
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:22pm
I have saved every Dozen Roses
of Eliza’s
hung upside down
& dried out
in vases, arranged
two dozen still hanging
from Me, old boyfriends
one treasured young man
staged in My Kitchen
doubled dozen in cut glass
petals laying themselves out
on table tops
falling to the floor
scattered up the stairs
crunching in Her Bed Room
all their colours subtly muted
drying into generic mauve
as they lose their moisture
their scent
taking on the scent of age
of years
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:55pm
White Trucks are mechanical Angels of Mercy
I saw One driving out of the polling station today
after voting for My Liberal MLA
(Member of The Provincial Legislative Assembly)
Whom My Husband says is Pro-Life
The Hawk Portico 6:00pm
I have shed The Cloak
of Both My Parents
and That Which I shared with My Brother
Who would have been 51 today*
–
I am The Sole Survivor
of That Family
The Family I was born headlong into —
My “Old” Family —
as I have wrapped My Self anew
within Hunter, My Grown Children
and 7 Cats
*My brother Howard Talbot Walden Hyde was killed November 22, 2007, while in custody. His death prompted the three-year Hyde Inquiry which found his death to be accidental due to restraint by jail guards — namely one Henwood.
The Hawk Deck 10:40am
22nd Anniversary of My Mother’s Brain Tumour Diagnosis
I live in a place
where women wear Their Robes
until noon
where cats meander across
other people’s lawns
where The Fall Sun
allows You a final stipend
of sitting on The Deck
where You reflect on a past
You know now
is gone
Joanna Gilman Hyde 