The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:05pm
I know what The Honour is
in being Doctor Blair’s Wife
for Nine Years today
Have I gotten over Our
less-than-perfect wedding
into the routine of laundry
& dinner
bedtime reading?
He holds My Left Wrist
& that’s when I love Him
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:40pm
My Life Is Great —
I’m Drinking A Labatt’s Blue
My New Car Is Out Front
An Iridescent Gun Metal Grey
I Can Drive With
Newly Installed Sirius
Set On 90’s On 9
What More Could A Girl
In Her Early 50’s
Possibly Want?
OH! I Forgot To Tell You
The Name:
Ford Fusion
The Action
Or Process Of Melting By Means Of Intense Heat;
The State of Fluidity As A Result
Of Being Heated
(Oxford English Dictionary 1993)
The Tomato-coloured Couch 3:20pm
Would I be unfair or inaccurate
not to include My Daughter
in this singularly female household
supported by One Man
& One Daughter’s Inheritance (that’s Me!)
living a life of leisure
& art —
am I being unfair
to My Self — afterall
I grocery shop
take out the trash
clean occasionally
& try to cook
The Hawk Hallway 7:34pm
My Journal Upon My Lap
Braces My Right Thigh
Crossed Over My Left
With The Final Rays Of Sun
Gracing My Kneecap
–
I Am Sitting To Write
Of The Exciting Time
Of Royal Birth
Growth Of Gold & Silver
& My Magic Number
Of The Day
–
The Only Shadow
On Our Good Favour
Is The Disappearance
Of Hunter’s Cat Cami
For The Second Time
The Hawk Deck 3:00pm
What Is In My World?
My Devoted Husband, soon-to-be-retired
My Darling Daughter, still up in the air
as far as school goes
My Children’s Grandfather languishing
in the little local hospital
under the care of Dr David H. Wilson
and so the perpetual ocean waves
draw Me in
The Hawk Deck 10:17am
The Waves sing out to Me
while Our Coffee steeps
Hunter is feeding the cats
I will check My Rooftop Views
@ 10:22
–
The Hawk Queen Bed 10:57am
The Surf is to The South
coming through Our Bedroom Windows
while We sit, legs stretched out
drinking second cups of coffee
on Our Hawk Queen Bed
with a solitary cat —
one of six —
resting between Us
The Hawk Deck 4:48pm
I’ve Been Showered Upon
Hosed Down
Drunk My Own Pee
& Where Has It Gotten Me?
–
I’ve Selected Eleven Poems
Of Mine
For A Cousin In Vermont
Yet Emily Dickinson
Sits Beside Me
Mostly Unread
–
Hunter Filed All My Poems
Today, Lining Them Up
With No Spaces Between
Making 594 Pages
–
What Will Ultimately Happen?
The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:45pm
My House is Ready
every dried rose is in place
not a spoon sits in the sink
all specks are off the floors
the coffee-table candle is lit
I am waiting for My Husband
to come home from work
& I am waiting, in place
for My Little Frog
to hop through
The Tomato-coloured Couch 5:15pm
Some Wives willingly take care
of Their Husbands’ Intimacies:
They wash & fold Their Boxers & Socks
pick up fingernail clippings
from around the bathroom sink
wash Their Husbands’ Hair before work
(not on weekends)
& clean out the tub
–
aside from being served His Meals
My Husband is fairly self-sufficient
but I must remind Him —
I am not one of Those Wives
Joanna Gilman Hyde 