The Hawk Deck 9:30am
He stood in His Pyjamas
in the early morning sun
gazing out, forward
across The West Side
of Shelburne Harbour
across the serene dockage
of My Mother’s Boat
at mooring
He took it all in:
He took in The Wild Flowers
The Rocks of the shoreline
He took in The Light
on the water
He took in The Air
and The Warmth
The Buzz of One Fly
and grinned
The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:16pm
EYE can lie around
M(EYE) House
like a cat
listening to the radio
and contemplating the art
veiled statues
while M(EYE) Husband
writes a long letter
to a former Lover
of M(EYE) Mother’s
Who knew Me
as The Child
Sobey’s Parking Lot, Barrington Passage, NS 2:30pm
EYE am Star Woman
on Parade
with M(EYE) Hot Orange
Bouquet
of Mother-in-law Roses
EYE am moving out of the lull
of Spring
into a Summer
of Majesty
and far-flung Love
Eliza’s Room 9:32pm
I slept in a nunnery the night before
I took My Brother Howard out
of Mt. Sinai Hospital
where He thought The World had ended
and a nurse told Me
He was not ready to leave —
I got Him on a bus
to the Toronto airport
where He thought the man behind us
was Our Second Cousin Billy —
Howard paced around while We waited
to board the plane —
He demanded to speak to The Captain —
He thought the plane would crash —
He had crashed
My dear terrified Brother
and My Mother and I
tried to take care of Him
with an Orthomolecular Diet
I tried to persuade Him
that His Hallucination
in Saudi Arabia
of His Step-brother shooting Him
in the stomach
with a “laser gun”
was nothing more than a dream —
He was fated to die
twenty-five years later
at the hands of jail guards
from The Burnside Correctional Centre
in Nova Scotia
having been “tasered” five times
by Halifax Regional Police
within the last thirty-six hours
of His Life
The Tomato-coloured Couch 1:30pm
Not so long ago
I breast fed You, My Babies
and now You’re out West
planting trees, sleeping in trailers —
please have no truck
with bears or coyotes
have fun making lots of money
and stay safe
My Little Dear Ones
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 9:20am
This morning as I ate
My Banana
out by the bank
where I dumped My Dead
Christmas Tree —
I heard My Mother call
to Me —
“Good Morning, ” She said
Good Morning, Jogie –“
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 11:26am
Today I picked up A Star
(Silver of course)
off My Thick Grey Bath Mat
It glinted at Me
as I sat on the toilet
and so I caught It
on My Left Index Finger
and scraped It off
with My Little Metal Star-scraper
into A Little White Box
of Indeportenz*
and named It
Joanna
*word of mine from My Childhood used to describe small collections of special things and later business envelopes and their contents My Mother would give Me to play with — usually junk mail.
The Hawk Living Room 4:30pm
A new arrangement of paintings
builds a triangle upon My Living Room Wall:
My Mother’s Portrait as a very young woman
painted by My Uncle
dresses the wall below My Balcony
hanging in the middle
above two impressionist paintings
of Africa — She took Me
as an infant to grow there
in Gabon and came home
with these two paintings
I framed in art school —
one showing a grass-roofed hut
palm trees with seated figure —
the other showing four bark canoes
and two figures readying them
in the foreground of open water
and open sky —
My First Year In Africa
She called The Worst Year
of Her Life — spent insomniac
underweight, pregnant
with My Fated Brother —
Africa inspired Her Novel
NOT EVEN THE MOON
never published —
Her Portrait looks down
to those two African paintings
and I look up to all three
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 7:55am
My Mother was My Guiding Star
I hang Her Portrait
above My Door
She led Me straight
to never lie
& held Me close
until She died
The Hawk Kitchen 12:25pm
Stuck inside a snow globe
looking through Her Sliding Glass Doors
to The Ferocity of Earth
laid out before
Her Feet
seen from above
— or any angle for that matter —
She has six cats
two grown children
two husbands under Her Belt —
She dashes off poetry
as if The World
is All Hers
Joanna Gilman Hyde 