The Hawk West Desk Window 10:44pm
The First Dying Rose
Taken From Eliza’s Bedroom Bouquet —
petals too limp to dry —
Its Russet Pink Still Enthralling —
Stands Upright In My Bathroom
waste basket
The Hawk West Desk Window 3:30pm
The Flock of Starlings careening
around Our House like schools of fish
during Eliza’s Arrival
settled on The Wires as She left
adding dimension to A Line
and a song to The Wind
The Hawk Living Room 7:30pm
Eliza’s Roses this week
will not end up the dried out buds
of every previous batch
This Week They have unfurled —
One even revealing Its Perfect Whirl
within The Orange Nautilus
of My Mind
The Hawk Corner Room 3:30pm
I wear An Open Heart Watch
on My Right Arm
A Silver Band on My Left
My Question Mark Ring
I deliberately flashed
when I last saw Him
nodding
over The Bed of My X
Father-in-law
3:50pm
I plunge into My Day Dream
snug in Eliza’s Corner Room
with a cup of Earl Grey
in front of The Picture Window
framing The Reason
I am Here
November 6, The Hawk West Desk Window 9:35pm
I saw The Pain
of His Parents’ Separation
flash across His Teenage Face:
six years later
when to My Son I felt I could confess
a poisonous love I husbanded
too long
am husbanding still — now My Daughter
runs Her Mother’s Risk
of another broken home
the one Eliza’s been homesick for
all Her Life
The Hawk Hallway 8:18am
I catch The Silver Sheen
upon the water
& wonder what the day
will bring
I prepare My List
for Home-coming Daughter
& wonder not that My Heart
still sings
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:22pm
I have saved every Dozen Roses
of Eliza’s
hung upside down
& dried out
in vases, arranged
two dozen still hanging
from Me, old boyfriends
one treasured young man
staged in My Kitchen
doubled dozen in cut glass
petals laying themselves out
on table tops
falling to the floor
scattered up the stairs
crunching in Her Bed Room
all their colours subtly muted
drying into generic mauve
as they lose their moisture
their scent
taking on the scent of age
of years
October 14, 2013 The Hawk Queen Bed 10:24pm
She showed Us Her Gift Card Collection:
Tim Horton’s, American Eagle, NSLC
(Nova Scotia Liquor Commission)
–
She said Good-night
on the eve of Her Adult-hood
& closed Her Bedroom Door
on Teenage-hood
Childhood
& Infancy
She took a dark fluffy cat with Her
to sleep
–
She plans to be up @ 6:00am
to leave @ 6:45 to drive
three hours to Her First Class
The New Nineteen-year-old
October 7, 2012, The Hawk West Desk Window 10:22pm
Both My Children were born
weekend babies —
Peter, deprived of oxygen
at supper time on a Sunday
two days after Christmas
Eliza into a pool of regulated water
at 9:04 on a Saturday Night
smack in the middle of October
–
Both are grown now
Their official Childhoods over
yet They play — and work:
Peak in His Darkroom Camper
Gub at University, running
Both take Their Play — and work — very seriously
It is Their hard-won achievement
and You can imagine how proud of Them I am
Joanna Gilman Hyde 