The Hawk Living Room 7:30pm
I once wore Red Underwear
for My Whole Life
& It got Me Nowhere
except to where I am
on a tomato-coloured love seat
staring at My Abortion
The Hawk Living Room 1:08pm
I just danced
to Daft Punk, One More Time
here in My Hawk Living Room
— the last time I danced
like I was from Outer Space
was during one month
in The Nova Scotia Hospital —
for Those Who don’t know
It’s The Province’s largest mental hospital
re-named The East Coast Forensic Unit
and of that month
I cannot recall a single day
but the day I arrived
The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:27pm
The Sun beams in on Me
through My Psychotic Haze
subsided — I no longer
hear songs on the radio
as messages to Me Alone
I no longer see blazing signs
of futuristic Life & Love
My Halo has vanished
I am “settled” now —
a word the hospital used —
I even heard & saw
A Lone Goose fly overhead
while I shovelled off
the paltry snow
from the front steps —
there too in The Sun —
& The Goose
carried no significance
other than He
must be lost
while I am found
The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:27pm
I remember the preparations
for Bed
in The Psychiatric Ward
usually completed
because there was nothing
else to do
but change out of Your Tee
& Jeans
& take Your Pyjamas
off the back
of Your Single Chair
or out of Your Top Drawer
if You happened to be
tidy that day
brushing Your Teeth
because You knew
You had to
brushing Your Hair
not because You felt like it
but because You
had to look at Your Self
in the mirror
not for the last time
Highway 103, NS NOON
Before Bed
I take a selection
of pills
— ten to be exact —
some for My Body
some for My Mind
They restore My Sleep
but rob Me of My Dreams
and so now I have an aura
accompanying My Vision
when I exit
The Shower
in Day Light
The Tomato-coloured Couch 9:11pm
Q: God, what has made You
appear in this time We are in?
–
A: I have been here all along —
yet I have revealed My Self through
The Light Of Silver
apparent only in the Dawning
Of The Dark.
–
Q: Do You feel We are entering
a period of Darkness?
–
A: Yes, We are already here.
–
Q: How do You see Us getting out?
–
A: When All Of Humanity
comes to the realization
that It, Humanity, is
The Collective Mind
of God — We will have begun
Our Exit from The Dark
into The Celebration
Of The Dark,
The Unknown.
–
Q: Are We entering a period of
The Unknown?
–
A: Yes, there too We are already in It.
–
Q: Do We need to turn to alien intelligence
to cope?
–
A: Nope. We have what It takes.
We must simply measure Our Minds of today
with those of the past.
We must look back
in order to see
Our Future.
The Hawk Dining Room 8:00am
“Everything’s going
all to Hell
very fast*”
yet I have
salmon pink clouds
turning to gold
*Dr W Hunter Blair
The Hawk Window Seat 10:52am
Years ago I left a house
with home-made curtains
& wooden floors
My Children both were babies there
& I was young with motherhood
& early marriage I thought was happy
until the onset of a tumour
inside My Mother’s Head
The Hawk Outpost 1:50pm
With The Sublimity of The Morning
with Me making coffee for three
with Eliza baking blueberry muffins
I thought to write of a garden
I was taken to see
by an Acadian Nurse named Emily
Who thought I’d like to walk
across the hospital parking lot
across a curving back street
to a stranger’s yard grown up
with flowers I don’t remember —
but I remember The Walk
& found It, or One like It, noted
in My decades-old medical records:
“Patient enjoyed Her Walk.”
The Head of Hawk Point Road 3:22pm
I have been chasing
down The Sky
along Hawk Point Road
I saw It fall
to The Ocean
in snowy squalls
I got back in My Car
& drove to The Head
where sun rays burst through
above a frayed Canadian Flag
blowing over a contemporary
grave yard
Joanna Gilman Hyde 