The Hawk Deck 8:45am
I’ve caught the liquid sun
to the call of The Chickadee
I see iridescent blue now
when I close My Eyes
& look again
The Hawk Utility Room 7:56pm
I stood above
My Mother’s Killer
dying on the basement floor
I thought of all
I’ve done to fill Her
and now can sleep
forever more
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:19pm
My Mother’s Brain Tumour
is dying
on the basement floor
is soon to be
enveloped by
perhaps a silver heart
but
the “roots”
will
survive
The Tomato-coloured Couch 3:25pm
I had a suburban upbringing
counteracted by summers
on a Wild Island
off the coast of Nova Scotia
I was a Nyack Public School Student
with paper route and good grades —
on The Island
I wore no clothes
and turned My White Bread Ass
Honey Brown
The Hawk Window Seat 1:30pm
I know A Beautiful Girl
Who lives on fruit
& nutritional shakes
& runs Cross Country
for Her University
She has A Room Mate
sharing the same
abode
drinking the same
supplements
& running for Her Life
The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:38pm
There once was A Girl
for Whom all She touched
turned to Silver
She lived in a Silver House
with Her Mother
and Five Cats
(The Cats weren’t Silver)
— there was a Silver Statue
of Her Mother after The Mother
died
& The Girl kept It
under Her Silver Bed
She had Friends come over
but would not touch Them
unless They wanted to be Silver too
One Day She met A Little Man
down a mossy lane
and The Little Man touched Her
by mistakei
He instantly turned
to Silver
and ran away
without even telling The Girl
His Name
The Hawk Portico 7:40pm
Down by The Guzzle tonight
I saw a young gull
with His breathy Beep – Beep —
He was with a parent gull
presumably
Who flew a few yards off
perhaps because of My proximity —
and Young Gull flew too
and circled overhead, beeping
to land
straight down
beside His Bond
Barrington Passage 1:16pm
I’ve walked across
My First Fall Leaves
upside down, the leaves
not Me
Oh — not Me — I have
all the tools at My Reach
for The Greatest, Grandest
entry of All —
I have The Seasons
set before Me:
beginning with Autumn
when I laid out My Canvas
on Michael Jackson’s birthday
when I signed My Name on October 10th
when I moved to Nova Scotia
and had My 2.4 Children —
Oh I was happy
until My Mother Died
but then, even then
I had the shock of newness
in The Shower Of Lights
to ponder, to confound everyone
around Me
to culminate in October
the month of My Baby Girl
to release My Self
inside the reassuring caress
of The Littlest Man
to Whom I have linked My Self
in My Mind
for every last season of Fall
Joanna Gilman Hyde 