In The Sun Today
I Walked The Pattern Of The Waves
& Looked Across The Sand
To Sea The Breakers
But To Hear Their Over-turnings Muffled
Out Of Reach Of The Wind
Rippling The Clouds Outside
My Kitchen Window
When I Got Home
The Tomato-coloured Couch 1:11pm
I live with A Demon
of My Own Creation
caged above Me
in My Living Room
He is black & dirty
with giant bird shit
dripping off the upper right corner
of His Chicken Wire Cage
first laid across Him
on the 4th Floor
of Cooper Union’s Foundation Building
where He came to Life
never to speak — only to glare
with His Brilliant Eyes
down upon His Audience —
Yet Today He Speaks!
Through Me as I speak out
for The Creature of My Fierce Fear —
My Fear of being locked in
or up
or out
as I have been locked inside
psychiatric wards
for years on end
I am OUT NOW
& I can speak My Mind
no matter how It comes out
I AM BLACK JESUS — but
not because I am dressed in black
I AM BLACK JESUS — because
I can speak
for My Desperate Crow — d
I feel a momentary gladness
with a song I like on the radio
as I look out My Sliding Kitchen Doors
to The Full Clouds
illuminated by The Sun
in an opposite part of The Sky
Joanna Gilman Hyde 