mother | Joanna Gilman Hyde

March 30, 2013

LITERARY MOTHER

The Tomato-coloured Couch 7:35pm

I caught an internal breath

after hanging The Preserved Newspaper Clipping

from The New York Times Book Review

dated June 4,1978 —

“Be A Literary Critic! Earn Big Bucks!”

hung first by Scotch Tape

in My Mother’s Valley Cottage Study

now hung, framed, in My Hawk Kitchen —

Did My Heart Really Skip

as I thought of My Literary Mother

Who, when I was eleven,

redacted Nova Scotia’s License Plate Slogan

“Canada’s Ocean Play Ground”

with black electricians tape?

2 Comments

March 29, 2013

ROBERT WILBER

Hunter’s Library on The Hawk 5:47pm

Today is an ordinary day

Good Friday

& My Mother’s Pain seeps

through Me

how trite to say

It was The Pain of a Love Affair

— in Her Mind It was Her Muse —

& It was broken

by a small man

of large musical talent

–

Her Pain operates generationally

through Me

now that I am unhinged

from Her

I remain

entranced by

an iridescent disc

yelling at Me

DVD – RW x2

2 Comments

March 27, 2013

MY MOTHER’S DEATH

The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:30pm

My Mother’s Death is sewed up

in that wretched little town —

I don’t have to live there any-more —

Her House is sold with The Shower of Lights

fixed in a poem

I’ll never set foot again

inside that sordid little hospital

where She was stationed for over a year

& where She Evaporated Into Thin Air

on A Saturday Night

twenty years ago

2 Comments

March 24, 2013

BIRTH PLACE OF ELIZA

The Hawk Corner Room 4:33pm

My Daughter, You Are Spectacular

the way I dreamt You up

to be capable of anything

with the nerve & the looks

to go with Your Infinite Abilities

You Can Do Anything

as I imagined when I saw You

in April of 1993

when I wanted A Baby Girl

A Beautiful Daughter —

not even as a compliment to My Son —

A Daughter to stand on Her Own

ready to Wow The World

now at eighteen

with Your tears of disproportion

about Your Idealized Body

Your Perfectly White Smile

and All Your Talents —

shall I list A Few?

After All, I Am Your Mother

& I Will Tell The World:

She Can Sing, Write, Act

Ride A Horse, Sail (Racing)

Bake, Cook, Organize

Play The Piano, Guitar, Saxophone —

She Can Make Money

& Raise It —

She Can Travel Solo

& Paint —

I Am Her Mother

I Made Her

And I Will Not Apologise

for Any of Eliza

8 Comments

March 22, 2013

DEPARTURE

The Hawk Queen Bed 8:00am

When I left My Children’s Father

fourteen years ago in June

I left My Clothes in Atlantic

I left The Pets

I left My Share of The Atlantic House

I left money in a joint bank account

I left two enormous pieces of furniture

The Secretary & High Boy inherited from The Woman I was named after —

I left Them in The Divorce Papers for Peak & Eliza

I had to leave My Kids

because I couldn’t take care of Them

4 Comments

March 21, 2013

DRIVEN

The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:15pm

We are driven on a cellular level

snaking our way in vehicular shells

out of Our Homes over The Highways

to restaurants & shopping centres

where the precious sight

of one Left Female Hand is held

by a boyfriend’s across a table

while She texts with availability of Right Thumb

next My Daughter breaks into tears

in the kitchen isle of Wall Mart

when I hedge on buying new plates

because I fail to see any

I like

& settle for 2 boxes of 16 piece Zen Plum

glaze-crazed

in the Light

of My Kitchen

9 Comments

March 20, 2013

MARCH

The Hawk Queen Bed 9:11am

I want to go to sleep

with the wind

up in My Turret

at the end of twenty years —

I want to sleep to seventy

& wake up to the noon

of My Old Age

no longer marred

March 15, 2013

FOR THE JACKIES IN MY LIFE

The Hawk Kitchen 3:15pm

Today I Made Cookies

— it doesn’t matter what kind —

— it doesn’t matter I had to pound

the brown sugar into submission —

— it doesn’t matter They came out with arms & legs —

I Made Cookies

For The First Time

Since Making Hermit Cookies With My Mother

On McNutt Island

over 25 years ago

2 Comments

March 11, 2013

GOD’S PALLET

The Hawk West Desk Window 5:10pm

If I were God, Which I Am,

I would decree the legalization

of Gay Marriage

the decriminalization of Street Drugs & Prostitution

the illegalization of Abortion

the equalization of God & Humanity

2 Comments

March 11, 2013

POEM FOR MARCH 27th

The Hawk Queen Bed 11:50am

On a Grey Day in March

I write The Poem for The 27th

The Day My Two Greatest Losses

befell Me by Fate:

The First was My True Companion —

My Mother made certain of that —

The Second was A Beginning —

The Beginning of A Child

I would never know

as I knew My Mother

Tag: mother