The Hawk Deck 8:51am
The Sea is liquid silver
in these early morning hours
I take solace in The Surf
to The North of where I sit
soaking in a last day of summer
with birds abuzz & cats
stirring on The Deck
The Hawk West Desk Window 2:22pm
My Children are inching Their Way
farther & farther away from Me —
Peak is bound for British Columbia
Eliza has begun Her First Year Of College
but rather than succumb to The Empty Nest
I must grow with Them & be The Best
Care-taker of My Self —
be My Own Mother
The Hawk Queen Bed 9:30pm
Today I drove past A Big Black Crow
perched atop a pile of dirt
He struck Me by His Blackness
compared to the organic colouration of brown
He stood as The Finial Of Dignity
above a mountain of earth
His Mountain — His Keep
–singularly His Post —
The Crow made the brown Truly Brown
His Black was Truly Black
The Hawk Queen Bed 7:45pm
When I am old & dying
I want to lie beside an open window
letting in the waves on air
the freshest murmur of the sea
so that I may be carried off
to My Next Plateau
wrapped inside
The Nautilus
of
Sound
The Hawk Deck 10:35am
I bit into My Morning Apple
and bit into The Fall
Eliza’s off to school next week
and I will be alone with Hunter
The Cats
and breezy lines of wash
The Hawk West Desk Window 10:22pm
Every night @ 9:30 I swallow a concoction
of medical remedies for sleep
— not to build a cocoon of ages —
but to bury Me underwater
like The Dragonfly Nymph
Who emerges after several years
into clear summer air
to fly the frenzied mating dance
to be admired
should She land against
the sleeve or head
of The Silver Haired Doctor
bent on examination
The Hawk Deck 11:22am
Looking up through My Sunglasses
I see Magical Bulbous Wisps
of White
lacing across The Immediate Sky
moving like Tentacles of Mist
to The North
where They fade
into Grey Slivers
of Silver
The Hawk Deck 10:12am
How can One Sound
conjure up A Place
and A Time?
— It’s The Call Of The Jay
that does It for Me
That Authoritative Squawk
harkens back to My Childhood
growing up in The Woods
of Rockland County
where I was a bossy child neighbour
and control freak
to My Brother
The Hawk Deck 9:51am
I don’t kill Flies any-more —
if One’s in The House bugging Me
I try to catch It against a window
in The Palm of My Hand
I feel It beating against
My Fingers
until I let It go
outside
Joanna Gilman Hyde 