The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:06pm
I’m Married To This House
& The Doctor & The Books
That Come With It
Even If My Son Peak
Settles Out West
We Can’t Move —
Where Would My Crow Painting
Go?
The Hawk Queen Bed 10:25pm
Tonight I’ll tell You
what I don’t hear:
the peepers & the waves
are closed out
by south windows shut
against a breeze too cool
— the north bathroom window is open
partially
but not a breath of sea
comes through
— an elderly cat, encouraged
to stay on Our Bed
& purr
has refused the invitation
All that’s left
is Hunter rattling
the spherical wire
inside His Jug
of night time protein drink
consumed
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:55pm
Who gave Me This Life
where I can write
poetry all day
& look out the windows —
Who gave Me This Place
filled with birds
& house dust
lint balls I don’t have
to examine to see
They’re nothing more
than Galaxies —
Who gave Me This Start
out of the ebb
of hospitalizations
straddled between
two husbands, a dead mother
& The Love Of A Puny Man
I somehow see
as Heroic?
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:20am
Morning Brilliance
off The Ocean
caught at My Kitchen Outpost
carries with me
up The Stairs
as I take the cups
to The Hawk Queen Bed
where We have Our Morning
Coffee
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:41pm
I was once walled in
by plexi-glass & counter tops
filing cabinets & indoor-outdoor carpeting
My Performance of trying to live or die
was put on display
& written about in nurses’ journals
I was made to eat food
I could not taste
& made to shower
when all I wanted to do
was drown in the tub
Now I Am Here
on The Hawk where the only wall
makes up My Kitchen Glass Doors:
They Slide Open
I Can Walk Through
To The Outside
To The Bird Calls
Of Life
The Hawk Deck 4:43pm
I Have A Stigmata
applied twice daily
with a Q -Tip
to My Right Cheek
(facial, that is)
I’m killing a part of Me —
a part of unfavourable growth —
I march around proudly
with the evidence of Sun
The Hawk West Desk Window 10:14am
The Cape has turned moss green
overnight
I gaze out across
Its growth of dunes
serene against the overcast sky
inlet tide — the rich grey
of My Husband’s Hair
while He’s in The Tub
The Hawk West Desk Window 9:25pm
I have slid through
the doors of powerful men
been followed home
by a complete rainbow
then there was a third thing
but I’ll be damned
if I can remember It
Joanna Gilman Hyde 