My Art Framer Al Delaney
former Mayor of Shelburne, Nova Scotia
called this morning
to tell Me He finished framing
My Letter from former Mayor Ed Koch
of New York City
& My Letter from former Governor Tom Kean
of New Jersey
written upon The Completion
of My Ten-thousand Square-foot Elliptical Spiral
on The Roof of The Former #5 World Trade Center
The Hawk Living Room 6:00pm
I’m savouring the last vestiges
of Sun
with the end of My Beer
before Our Nor’ Easter
combines with Hurricane Sandy
to form the already famous “Frankenstorm”
of 2012 —
could The Election be postponed?
The Hawk Portico 5:00pm
Boy am I glad I got
My Canadian Citizenship
— at first I thought
I had to relinquish My American
but I didn’t —
so I got My Canadian in 1995
I call My Self a Dual Citizen
Born American
Canadian By Choice
and as a Canadian, under
the provisions of the Citizen Act and,
as such, [am] entitled to all the rights
and privileges and [am] subject
to all the duties and responsibilities
of a Canadian Citizen
I once stood before a window screened
with hardware cloth
in an institution
of not My Choosing
–
from an upper storey
I stood there as if
before a microphone
I called out
to imaginary Children below
to save Them from the water’s edge
to save The Gulls from extinction
The Hawk Portico 1:15pm
On A Day Like Lovely Today
Eighteen Years Ago
I Laboured All Day
With My Daughter
Who Was Hardly A Labour
Born Into An Inflatable Pool
@ 9:04 That Night:
She Came Out PERFECT
What is The Necessity of an “Accident?”
–
If That Asteroid
hadn’t wiped out The Dinosaurs
65 million years ago
would Humanity
as We Know It
be crawling The Earth
Today?
–
Could this Progression happen Elsewhere?
The Hawk Portico 5:24pm
The Waves are brusque tonight
& the sky is grey
I’m on My Second Beer
after a day of recovering from “My Spell”
in-which I lost My Decisiveness
& other people had to plan for Me
I am not altogether comfortable in These States
luckily They don’t happen often
but They can & do
in the unlikeliest of places
like Sobey’s
or some other zoo
–
I freeze up
not knowing what to think
or My Thinking’s Hung
temporarily shut down —
the only fortification I respond to
is the Kindness of Others
& I have always been met with Kindness
Joanna Gilman Hyde 