The Tomato-coloured Couch 4:00pm
I am The Girl Who’s
had Every Advantage
even when the heel broke
off My Glass Slipper
I arrived unscathed
from an orgy of Champagne
in the back of a Limousine —
too bad I don’t remember
The Home Stretch
The Hawk West Desk Window 8:44am
I have A Show Husband
dressed for Casual Friday
in His brand new Art Director’s Shirt
& old jeans
He has to tell Them
“Listen People”
while He sells His Position
of being Dr Blair
& I sell Mine
of being His Wife
The Hawk Queen Bed 7:57am
We had a magnificent sunrise
this morning — actually cloud rise —
the billowing clouds along the horizon
were banked by lesser streaks
& the sun’s light glared out behind
illuminating the bulbous edges
— it even had rays shining out & up —
— but We never saw the sun —
it got caught
The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:34pm
I have arranged a vase
of Eliza’s dried roses
sitting below two framed portraits
of Africa
My Beginning
I began in Gabon
for My First Year
photographed in Dr Schweitzer’s Arms
I have been in The Arms
of Doctors
ever since
The Hawk Deck 9:38am
The World Is Waiting
The Guns Have Been Silenced
I Will Come Forward
With A Primitive Call
To Hands, Arms Extended
— The Reconstruction —
Waiting In Our Laps
Our Greatest Power
The Hawk Kitchen 6:30pm
Scarlet Scarlet Berries
outside My back kitchen door
hit with evening sun
comfort Me as I devour
My Daughter’s Pumpkin Pudding —
My beloved Astro caught A Little Bird
thanks to Me
tossing out a banana peel
along the backyard hedge
even after I asked My Self
If All Those Little Birds
could be gone
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
Joanna Gilman Hyde 